"David in Normandy" wrote in message
. fr...
My forearms are covered in horrible red blisters, like lots of burn
wounds, they are a real mess. Three days ago I ran the lawnmower over some
weeds / flowers which where poking through a fence onto the edge of the
lawn. It only knocked over some of the taller weeds so I pulled them up by
hand afterwards wearing leather gloves but bare arms. I thought nothing of
this and continued working in the garden for several hours. However by the
evening my arms were itching and had red marks. By the following day they
were covered in red swollen blisters. Some long blisters too several
inches long, all full of fluid. They are still a mess and red and itching
three days later.

After looking up the symptoms and degree of skin blistering on the web it
is possible the weed could have been a giant hogweed but I don't remember
mowing one of those down. It is likely that running the mower over the
weeds/flowers splattered sap all over them and when I pulling up the
flattened stragglers and carried them in my arms to the compost bin I
probably got my arms coated in sap.


Sounds like Hogweed to me, not neccesarily the giant sort, just ordinary
standard Hogweed, the damaged is made worse if the sap gets on the skin and
then is exposed to sunlight, I have the scars on my hands to this day of a
dose before I realised how damaging it could be.


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
I wish I knew exactly what type of weed did the damage. I know that
amongst the weeds there was one of those big plants that look like a
thistle but have yellow flowers, there were also lots of forget-me-nots
and some morning glory. I'm not aware of any of those having dangerous
sap?

--
David in Normandy.
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