Today I decided to prune some shrubberies and cut down some poke weeds. The latter were close to 8 feet tall and amazingly well built for a weed. They were overgrown with wild grape plants and vines covered with stickers. While dragging the prunings back to the burn pile I noticed that the spiders in my boxwood shrubs are back:
I don't much care for boxwoods but I am glad they provide a nice home for millions of spiders.
But that's not what I am here to talk about. Nope, what I am here to discuss today is Heracleum Mantegazzinum, which although it sounds Italian, is actually an extremely dangerous member of the carrot family. Looks benign enough:
Contact with the sap can lead to months of pain or blindness. It causes phytophotodermatitis and while that rolls trippingly off the tongue, I really don't want to experience it. Poison ivy is bad. Poison oak, bad. Poison sumac, worse. Heck, after a lifetime of working with freshly cut black walnut I have now gotten sensitized to the point that I get contact dermatitis when the sap gets on my skin. So when I read that this noxious plant is now invading my space I became concerned. Now I hope I have enough sense to avoid it should I encounter it in the wild.
Where is a flame thrower when you need one?
16 comments:
I personally have escaped the joys of poison ivy, but I haven't escaped a stiff back. Which I got digging up a weed bed. It had been a flower bed but evolved into a weed bed for the obvious reason that I'm no gardener. Anyway, there I was with this back that suddenly came up stiff after I dug up or dug out the weed bed. I thought, give it a day or three and I'll be back to normal, but it stayed stiff. After a month I went to the doctor who...dismissed it. Boy was I angry. But in parting he said casually, "You might want to try physical therapy" and gave me a list. So I did and I lucked out! I'm taking forever to get to the point. The point is that the physical therapist gave me a breathing exercise to do and it works. Slow breathing. It's so simple. You lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor and slowly inhale, very slowly exhale, relax, slowly inhale, very slowly exhale, relax, slowly inhale, very slowly exhale repeat repeat for 15 to 20 minutes. All I know is my back's improving. Wisdom of the East I guess.
”Heracleum Mantegazzinum” sounds more Latin than Italian. I suppose the Italians would have dumbed it down to “Ercolano Montegazzino” or some such. Latin/Italian cognates can be straightforward.
I think I’m immune to poison ivy. Growing up, I never got any on me. I never remembered what it looked like either, and so I blundered through patches as a kid. Sensitivity was for sissies.
I’ve never really embraced chemophobia. I am allergic to one type of chemical — anything with a benzyl moiety. It’s not so much an allergy as a sensitivity. I get an unpleasant metallic taste in my mouth after tiny exposure.
This might do the trick.
https://throwflame.com/
"Our flamethrowers deliver the power, performance and safety to set even the biggest challenges up in smoke. Unlock the true performance of your flamethrower with our fuel thickening Napalm Mix."
@windbag: very interesting. You’d think that open flame warfare would have caught on outside the internet.
Holy Cow!
It typically grows to heights of 2 to 5.5 m (6 ft 7 in to 18 ft 1 in)!!!
And there I was thinking it looked sort of like Queen Anne's Lace!
Getting that by the throat, throwing it over and dragging it away sounds like a challenge, as does guarding the gate to prevent its return.
I'm highly allergic to poison ivy and one of the blessings of the new place is that it does not appear to be present in the yard, garden areas and shrubbery as it was at the old house which was situated next to a creek where it flourished, with birds dropping the PI seeds in the landscaping.
I was expecting a Tony Joe White song.
Poison ivy contains urushiol, which is also used in Japanese lacquer. There is plenty of information available on that substance, which I happen to be highly allergic to.
Walnut trees contain juglones, which has cytotoxic properties. I am moderately allergic to that one.
Giant hogweed contains furanocoumarin, and I hope I never find out whether or not I react to that one.
Poke weed is Phytolacca americana, and it contains alkaloid phytolaccatoxin and phytolaccagenin - hence Poke Salad Annie goin' crazy. As I have mentioned before, I grow bumper crops of poke weed here on Rancho Deluxe, and this year is no exception. The ones I cut down today were easily 8 feet tall. Timber!
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the woods again.
Good one, ND, and that's what I used last time I wrote about poke weed.
I hope no one ever feels moved to write a song about Giant Hogweed! Come to think of it, maybe there is a link to Carrot Top in there somewhere...
Ask and ye shall receive. Genesis: "The Return of the Giant Hogweed"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTuJQL8GBqY
Plants do not want to get eaten, so they make themselves inedible. While it can be a curse, we get all sorts of benefits from that too.
I was going to thank you for the link, windbag, but then I listened to it. I knew there was a reason I eschewed Genesis. Just guessing here but I think phytophotodermatitis might be less painful.
Sixty, I'm with you on your assessment of Genesis. I never understood their popularity.
Phew - I was hoping that I hadn't stepped on anyone's toes with my comment - that is just some peculiar sounding music, at least to me.
But you nailed the Giant Hogweed reference, so good on ya, lad!
Now onward and upward to phyto photo etc!
One more thing to worry about, geeze.
I'm fond of pokeweed. Grows in my small backyard.
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