Dangerous plants

[ozzy1977]

Black bryony is poisonous and related to the yam

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Black bryony is poisonous and related to the yam

Is it poisonous when ingested, or through skin contact? If I touch a part of the plant, will it bring me out in a rash, or blisters or some other negative reaction?

J

 

[Quixoticgeek]

Basically, just stay inside. It's safer. Wait. Don't most accidents occur in the home? We're all doomed! Doomed I tell ye....

You say that. I live in a 1st floor flat, I have 15 steps to descend to get out the building. The stair case is incredibly dangerous as every day objects we use go. If the stair case were to be invented now, it would never make it past a basic safety analysis.

The definitive work on the subject is The Staircase: studies of Hazards Falls and Safer Design by John Templer. Which goes into more detail than you could perhaps want to know on the subject. The staircase is after all an interesting design compromise. You could dramatically increase safety if you made them one way. A staircase designed purely for going up would have a different Rise and Going, to a staircase designed purely for descent. It's also interesting that the risks posed by the staircase increase with age. To quote Bill Bryson on the subject "Eighty-four per cent of people who die in stair falls at home are sixty fire of older. This is not so much because the elderly are more careless on stairs, as because they don't get up so well afterwards."

Yes there are many dangers in this world, be they within the home or without, after all trousers have killed more people in Britain this century than terrorism has. Biscuits also are a documented killer. But ultimately when it comes down to it, to quote Douglas Coupland "Adventure without risk is Disneyland"

J

 

[Toddy]

I was five before we moved to a house with stairs. I still don't like them.

So, we're really looking for a list of plants that are "Touch me not" types ?
That's going to be like thon list…..some folks are sensitive to stuff that doesn't bother anyone else.


M

 

[crosslandkelly]

Leylandii can cause skin irritation in some people.

 

[Joonsy]

slightly different to brushing against it but bracken can cause some very nasty cuts if you grab it with bare hands and try pull it, I was once cut to the bone when I pulled up some bracken with my hands to make some bedding. if you want to harvest bracken take note it can slice your hands open if you are careless in grabbing and pulling it with your hands.

 

[Joonsy]

hay and straw can cause irritating rashes in some circumstances.

there is something called straw itch mite https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/feeding-nutrition/straw-itch-mites

I used to do a fair bit of haymaking and soon learned to wear long sleeves and trousers (not shorts) even in hot weather, you feel fine wearing shorts and a vest until you jump in the bath that is ! straw mite is horrible and causes severe itching.

 

[boatman]

Ester Rantzen once ran a long campaign about the dangers of carcinoma from bracken, made it seem a death sentence to go near it.

 

[Nice65]

Leylandii can cause skin irritation in some people.

Was just about to add that. Luckily I took the time to read the thread.

It's not too bad, but a day felling one in the sun does cause some redness and irritation. As mentioned below, it is worse when in the shower or washing the sap off.

To add, many milky sap plants such as Rue can cause irritation. I'm fairly sure we don't have the likes of poison oak/ivy here.

Bracken, Ester. Our commons here were bereft of Bracken for a few years after all that, the volunteers used to come in and cut it all down for our safety. Silly business really.

Took on a Kiwi to help out at work once. He was keen, ran into a nettle patch to fetch a bit of wood. Then he started screaming he was in a wasp nest. They don't have nettles there

 

[Joonsy]

Ester Rantzen once ran a long campaign about the dangers of carcinoma from bracken, made it seem a death sentence to go near it.

Silly business really.

''Triffids'', unless you live on the Isle of Wight

 

[JohnC]

http://www.alnwickgarden.com/explore/whats-here/the-poison-garden

Alnwick has this garden set aside, we took the guided tour once, the guide said the kids were ok, it was the dads who had to be watched...

 

[forrestdweller]

Took on a Kiwi to help out at work once. He was keen, ran into a nettle patch to fetch a bit of wood. Then he started screaming he was in a wasp nest. They don't have nettles there

sorry if I go : New Zealand has both the introduced European nettles and the native urtica ferox-- the latter one being far more dangerous than the introduced species.....

 

[Robson Valley]

Down Under, I had an accidental "brush" with a 2m thing called saw grass. Healed up nicely, thank you.
North (Queensland?), there are big woody shrubs with silica tipped hairs doped with some sort of toxin.
"Stinging Trees" might leave you incapacitated for just a few days and after effects for months.

 

[Herbalist1]

slightly different to brushing against it but bracken can cause some very nasty cuts if you grab it with bare hands and try pull it, I was once cut to the bone when I pulled up some bracken with my hands to make some bedding. if you want to harvest bracken take note it can slice your hands open if you are careless in grabbing and pulling it with your hands.

I'll second that - once cut my hand fairly badly as a kid by pulling pulling a bracken frond. It was a real shock at the time but I never did it again!

 

[Harvestman]

Ah that reminds me. Common reed. Easy plant to snap, but if you try pulling it the surface layers of the stem tend to break and slide, resulting in them inevitably burying themselves in your hand. I had to have about an inch of reed stem extracted from my thumb at a local nature reserve after doing this. The site manager told me it was the commonest injury reported on the site, although he did add that "it normally only happens to 4 year olds"

 

[Herbalist1]

Ouch, sounds painful. Still it shows you still have the enquiring mind of a 4 your old

 

[Arya]

Great thread!
Thank´s for the information about the Aloe! I wash´t aware of that, and will most definitely use that information on some of my Aloe fanatics next time they try to convince me to buy all sorts of Aloe stuff I don´t need :swordfigh
I see the Brugmansia is on the list. Do you have Brugmansias growing wild in the UK?

 

[Toddy]

Arya, the native sempervivums of Europe are every bit as useful as the Aloe.
They are hardy, tolerate our cold and wet, and low sun in Winter, and their little juicy-jelly filled leaves are very good for skin problems. The juice sooths sunburn, burns, stings, rashes, gently moisturises, etc.,
Loads of different varieties too. In the UK they were known as houseleeks, or hens and chickens. Like this one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sempervivum_tectorum#/media/File:Sempervivum_tectorum.JPG

https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/17075...ervivum+&aliaspath=%2fplants%2fsearch-results

I can't get either of these photos to show without fuss or bother. I'll take a photo of mine later and post it in this thread.

M

 

[Arya]

Thank you Toddy!

They are actually quite common in Norway to. We call them "Roof Onions/Leeks". I wash´t aware of the medicinal use of this plant, and will most definitely try them out now!

 

[Toddy]

Excellent they're called houseleeks here because folks used to grow them on the slate roofs and in nooks and crannies on old stone walls.
Very useful plants

M