Nick Maclaren wrote:
In article .com,
"Sacha" writes:
|
| However, you say that the sap isn't life-threatening but that is one
| of the most toxic plants going. A friend of ours ended up in hospital
| after contact with it. He had horrible blisters and three years later,
| the areas of his skin affected, still react badly to exposure to
| sunlight. It's definitely not a plant to take lightly or to recommend
| to others, IMO. Anyway, Hayley, I'm sorry - that was a mistake on my
| part.

I would (and did) take the "chemical burn" plants more seriously than
the "poisonous" ones. If a child gets the sap on its hands, and rubs
its eyes, that could be VERY bad news. And that is actually a likely
scenario, unlike a child munching random unpalatable leaves, digging
up and eating roots etc.

Unfortunately, there are a fair number of such plants. Giant hogweed
is one; all sumachs and euphorbias are others - and the last include
petty spurge (a very common weed) and the house plant "poinsettia".
Also periwinkles, but mere touch isn't enough to reach the sap.

Incidentally, I never did confuse Hayley with anyone, but did (and do)
feel that she should and could have checked in a book or elsewhere on
the Web to find out that quinces are NOT poisonous.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Over the years I've worked alongside people, adults, with varying
degrees of susceptibility to plant poisons.

Euphobias were relatively successful in causing skin irritations.

To a lesser percentage, but more severe, Berberis thunbergi (in march
only).

Rue, on the other hand, affected anyone in contact with it and even got
to me, which surprised me.

On a different angle, fremontodendron is covered in tiny, almost
glass-like-invisible shards. It's a lovely plant which flowers very
well for such a long time that I wondered why it was not more popular.
Then one day I found out when, presumably, I rubbed my eyes whilst
de-heading some of its flowers and by the evening my eye was glued up.
The following day it was even more glued up and I had to go to an
optician. Not exactly a chemical burn, or the deadly-poisonous
catogory, but unpleasant enough in my experience.