In "The White Lotus," Timothy, the patriarch of the Ratliff family, contemplates eating the fruit of the Cerbera odollam, also known as the "suicide tree" or "pong pong tree." But just how poisonous is the fruit? NBC News' Dr. Akshay Syal explains. | NBC News

You might recognise the poisonous Pong pong tree (Cerbera odollam) from its starring role in the latest series of The White Lotus. Lachlan, our First Nations Learning Assistant, is here to tell us about its equally toxic Australian cousin: Cerbera floribunda. This tree comes from the same genus and grows enormous bright blue fruits which are swallowed whole by cassowaries, giving the tree its common name of 'the cassowary plum'. The gigantic and endangered birds are the only species not affected