black poisonwood

noun

variants or black poison

: a tree (Metopium brownei of the family Anacardiaceae) native to southern Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and the West Indies that has a severely irritating sap and yields a dark close-grained hardwood

He's a bushman who knows bush lore, … knows which trees shelter the howler monkeys, knows the poisonous black tarry sap from the black poisonwood and the antidote in the red gumbolimbo tree that usually grows nearby.

—Jane P. Marshall, The Houston Chronicle, 4 Feb. 1996

called also chechem

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