In article ,
P van Rijckevorsel wrote:
In Europe there was a wide-spread belief (once upon a time) that ash trees
(Fraxinus) had some such properties. I will give my Indian tree books a
quick try tomorrow.
PvR

PS Once upon a time there were also believed to be poisonous trees that
could be recognized by the dead birds accumulating under it (they tried to
fly over the tree but were smitten with the poison)

That may be the semi-mythical Upas tree, the poisonous exhalations of
which killed everything for miles around. You aren't supposed to ask
how people knew there was a tree in the middle of this dead zone. I
say "semi-mythical" because upas is also associated with a real tree,
Antiaris toxicaria, the sap of which is used to make an arrow poison.

I googled on "upas tree" and found among other things a poem by Pushkin,
which I hope is less florid in Russian than in English at

http://ruslit.virtualave.net/pushkin/upasengl.html

As well as this account at http://www.bartleby.com/81/16994.html

Applied to anything baneful or of evil influence. The tradition
is that a putrid stream rises from the tree which grows in the
island of Java, and that whatever the vapour touches dies. This
fable is chiefly due to Foersch, a Dutch physician, who
published his narrative in 1783. "Not a tree," he
says, "nor blade of grass is to be found in the valley or
surrounding mountains. Not a beast or bird, reptile or living
thing, lives in the vicinity." He adds that on "one
occasion 1,600 refugees encamped within fourteen miles of it,
and all but 300 died within two months." This fable Darwin
has perpetuated in his ILoves of the Plants./I Bennett has
shown that the Dutchman's account is a mere
traveller's tale, for the tree while growing is quite
innocuous, though the juice may be used for poison; the whole
neighbourhood is most richly covered with vegetation; men can
fearlessly walk under the tree, and birds roost on its
branches. A upas tree grows in Kew Gardens, and flourishes
amidst other hot-house plants.