In The White Lotus' season 3 premiere, health mentor Pam (Morgana O'Reilly) warns the Ratliff family away from the fruit growing on the "mighty pong pong trees" outside their villa. "The seeds of the fruit are toxic," she says. "It's very poisonous."

Fast-forward eight episodes to the season 3 finale and Timothy (Jason Isaacs) is again asking Pam about the fruit. "The locals actually call it 'the suicide tree' because people grind up the seeds and eat them when they wanna kill themselves," she explains. "So don't eat it."

After its role in the finale, fans are curious about whether this fruit (and the tree it grows on) is real — and if its reputation is as deadly as we're told. Read on to learn all about the pong pong tree, how its fruit is utilized in the finale, and what it feels like to ingest those poison seeds. Spoiler: not good.

The pong pong tree, otherwise known as "the suicide tree," is very real — and just as deadly as Pam suggests.

A 2018 study in the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine notes that the plant, also known as Cerbera odollam, grows primarily in wet areas in South India, Madagascar, and Southeast Asia. The fruit that grows on its branches is called othalanga, and it has a bitter taste.

The notes, as do most studies of the plant, that it is "frequently used for suicidal ingestion."