In article ,
jOhN wrote:

Stephen Murray wrote:
Help - why won't my photo upload? - NEW USER BTW
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I have a plant in my garden that has caused a neighbours 9 year old
child (and her cousin) to have an allergic reaction in the form of a
reddish rash (not itchy, but hot) forming eventually with small watery
blisters on face and hands after several hours.

I have attached a pic of this plant with this thread. It started
growing out of the blue so must have been wind borne. There are now
about 4 of these plants. They have grown rapidly and I left them to
see if they would flower - and they haven't. They've grown to about 5
ft tall in 3 months or so. The stems/branches have a strange
fluorescent violet colour about them.
As the branches grow, they split into 3, form yellowish green leaves
and eventually form little buds (but no flowers). The buds have 3
green segments which have white seeds inside and a white milky sap
(like latex). The chidren were picking these buds and popping them in
between their fingers.

Could anybody throw any light on whether or not this is a plant that is
dangerous/toxic and coming into contact with would need medical
attention.

Thanks.


Still no attachment

Without the picture it's difficult to say. When the child got the rash,
had it been bright and sunny ? The milky sap sounds like a spurge or one
of the umbellifers, but the flourescent stems has got me! It's not easy
to say what's good and bad, for example I have a nasty reaction to
spurges and umbellifers (cow parsley here in the UK for example), but
only when it is a bright day (the poison is a photoreactant) I remember
a plant similar to your description, it had blue/purple bell shaped
flowers that hung down .. unfortunately I never identified it, as it
wasn't in my garden.

Like everyone I'm eager to see the photo.

Hope that helps

Dominic