You can find anything in the jungle at night. A tree exploding with poisonous spikes suddenly.
It’s not the tree that explodes, of course, but its fruits. They resemble little pumpkin-capsules. When ripe and dry, the fruit’s walls gradually stretch, accumulating internal tension. At some point, this “biological device” bursts with a loud pop, throwing seeds at tremendous speeds — up to ~70 m/s covering dozens of meters, the sound resembling a gunshot.
All parts of the tree are extremely toxic. The sap contains irritants that cause severe burns and rashes on skin contact, and temporary or even permanent blindness in the eyes.
There are simply more trees around with spikes (non-poisonous), but long and sharp. Just like the one shown in the series pluribus
Hi, I'm Rauf Aliev. 