Dagor or Suicide tree, Cerbera odollam

Dagor or Suicide tree (Cerbera odollam, family: Apocynaceae) is a small tree with whorled branch, containing full of poison in its body. It exudes a milky latex when struck or when its leaves and stems are crushed. It can attain a height of 10-12 m. The tree is equally poisonous, like its closest members Oleander (Nerium oleander) and Yellow Oleander (Cascabela thevetia). 

The bushy mangrove species is often found along the salt marshes of the Sundarbans as well as the seashore of Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar. It is also found in the coastline of South and Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands and some parts of Australia.

Other names: Dhakur, Dabur (Bangla), Yellow-eyed Cerbera, Sea Mango, Grey Milkwood (Eng.).

Several leaves are gathered at the tip of the branch in opposite composition. Obovate-lanceolate leaves are dark green and glossy, large, 18-20 cm long and 4-5 cm wide, glabrous and coriaceous, tapering at the base, acute at the apex, petiols 2-4 cm long. 

A few reddish-orange dead leaves can be seen hanging from its trees even during the high monsoon. This characteristic of the leafy tree catches everyone's attention when traveling to the Sundarbans and other mangrove forests of Bangladesh.

There are 28 to 30 bisexual flowers in each cyme inflorescence. These are glabrous, prominent and sweet-scented, white in color with yellow eyes. Flowers are tubular, 5-7 cm long with 5 petals, which somewhat adjacent to the base. sepals 5. 

Fruits are large in size, round-shaped and smooth, 5-10 cm long and 3.5–6.5 cm in diameter. The ripe fruits turn from green to reddish purple, then brown-black. Seeds 1-2. Like many oceanic fruits, its fruit has thick fibers on its skin, which help it float far and wide in ocean water. 

Seeds are highly poisonous. Its seeds are used to commit suicide or kill someone by poisoning somewhere. The poison of its fruit was used to prove whether a person was honest or dishonest. This is called ordeal. Its (or its closest member Cerbera manghas) seeds were used to kill 3,000 people each year in Madagascar alone in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The plants genus name Cerbera is derived from the chemical cerberin. Interestingly, cerberin comes from three-headed dog, whose guard the entrance of underworld according to Greek mythology. It is understandable that the mythological narrative has been related to explain the plant’s toxicity. The leafy tree is planted as street plant somewhere in Singapore as well as other countries of Southeast Asia. 

Synonyms: Tanghinia odollam, Cerbera dilatata, Cerbera forsteri, Cerbera lactaria, Odollamia malabarica, Tanghinia lactaria, Excoecaria ovatifolia.