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"Java tree, worse than a serpent's tooth" (4)
UPAS is the answer, but the parsing with respect to the serpent's tooth defeats me. I know the Lear quote, but it doesn't seem to help!

I think it might just be a cryptic definition with no wordplay (despite ASP being jumbled in there) - because the Upas tree is reputed to poison the land surrounding it. So it's worse than the poison from a serpent's tooth.

That's as far as we got, but it seems a bit tame for the mighty Araucaria!

Sorry, didn't know you'd got that much. I dare say you tried UP to mean "worse than" (I couldn't justify that) + A + S for serpent's tooth, a serpent's tooth being its foremost part. (Hmm.)
I agree it's a bit weak not to have some unequivocal wordplay when it's not the most well known of trees.

This has still been niggling away in the back of my mind, and from its dimmest depths I've dragged up an allusion lost since my childhood. The upas tree poisons the land around, and with a side-swipe from Lear Araucaria refers to serpent's tooth. Now in classical mythology the dragon-serpent's teeth were sown and gave rise to warriors. The teeth themselves were described as poisoning the land, and the phrase "to sow dragon's teeth" has come to mean to do something that causes dispute and thus poison. I'd like to think this reference is waht Araucaria meant, such that I can maintain my healthy respect for his clueing!