Ordeal tree Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun evergreen shrub or tree of South Africa
    Acocanthera venenata; Acocanthera oppositifolia; bushman's poison.

WordNet

Definitions
  1. (Bot.), a poisonous tree of Madagascar (Tanghinia, ∨ Cerbera, venenata). Persons suspected of crime are forced to eat the seeds of the plumlike fruit, and criminals are put to death by being pricked with a lance dipped in the juice of the seeds.

Webster 1913