The fruit of the pong pong tree — a real, poisonous plant — is a major plot point in the Season 3 finale of HBO’s The White Lotus. Ingesting even one seed from the pong pong fruit can be fatal.

The pong pong tree isn't just "The White Lotus" fiction. The science behind the killer seeds from the "suicide tree" are real and can be deadly, even in small doses.

The pong pong tree’s seeds have a “moderate bitter taste,” says Yvan Gaillard, a toxicologist at the Laboratory of Analytical Toxicology in France. Yet it’s easy to mask in a more bitter ...

The pong-pong tree is native to Thailand — the setting for The White Lotus season 3 — and throughout Southeast Asia. It's also found in India and several countries in East Africa.

Not only is the Pong Pong tree real but Chicago's Field Museum has samples of the poison seeds this season of the show have made infamous.

Though the plot of the The White Lotus and the finale may be fictional, the consequences of eating fruit from the pong pong tree are very real and just as deadly as Mike White’s show makes it out to ...

Kimberly Hansen, Collections Manager of Flowering Plants, The Field Museum, joins John Williams to talk about her work at the Field Museum, the now famous poison pong-pong tree plant that was featured ...

The pong pong tree—also known as the “suicide tree”—may be a plot point in the season finale of the HBO series. But the plant was known to cause thousands of deaths a year in the past.

Pong-pong trees, or Cerbera odollam, are indigenous to South and Southeast Asia, tropical Pacific islands and parts of Australia, according to the National Tropical Botanical Garden, a research ...

Every part of the pong pong tree is poisonous, but the leaves and barks aren’t as potent as the seeds. It’s long been used for both murder and suicide in Southeast Asia.

The pong pong tree’s seeds have a “moderate bitter taste,” says Yvan Gaillard, a toxicologist at the Laboratory of Analytical Toxicology in France. Yet it’s easy to mask in a more bitter ...