…from trimming a plant.
It seems everything about euphorbias (spurge) is poisonous. She had trimmed the euphorbia we brought in, and began having eye pain. A fast check of the internet turned up “sap in the eye: blindness,” seeds–death. Fumes off the living plant can be harmful to the eyes. Etc. We called OSG for advice and headed for the ER.
Two hours later and several hundred dollars the worse, I fear, we are back. Jane is fine. We at least provided a fast education on euphorbias for the ER staff. A stain test turned up no lesion or abrasion, and Jane’s action of a warm water rinse proved the right thing to have done.
So…take it from us, dear friends. We have swept the floor to be sure there are no seeds for the cats to get into: the plant will be trimmed outside the house, wearing gloves and goggles, and all pieces discarded.
And Jane has a prescription and a wad of instructions.
We are very glad to have found out about euphorbias, which are a gloriously beautiful green plant, the delight of bees, and just very nasty to those to trim them. The word from the US Poison Center: if you get the sap straight in the eye it is epic pain, and goes downhill from there, including blindness.
So wear goggles and gloves, fellow gardeners, with this one.
It does not surprise me that a thing with a name that begins with “Eup” proves to be a major — and potentially damaging — irritant.
Lots of euphorb species with various degrees of irritatingness, yes, as noted above. Degree also varies with local conditions, IIRC.
On Kaua’i, touring one of the incredible bot gardens there, we were driven past a huge number of closely-packed green sticks—not on bot garden property— that were way taller than I am and packed too closely to see through. I asked the tour guide, “What are all those things that look like huge pencil euphorbias?” (I forget the name; it’s from Madagascar.) Drumroll: “They’re pencil euphorbias,” he said; an invasive exotic there. He also said that people had been seriously injured while trying to hack through them; not only eyes but bad skin lesions.
That patch is scheduled to be bulldozed and replaced with Hawai’ian native plants, as mitigation for a pricey golf course sited just upslope. Even a golf course can have a silver lining, I guess.
What about Donkey Spurge? It’s one of my favorite plants… I have some in a plastic jar near the left walk in mom’s garden… I’ve never had problems with it, and if I recall correctly, It’s never had problems with me! hee hee.. maybe it’s just a certain.. oh what’s the word, what’s the word… genus?
O.O
Hey guys what about Christopher Gorham (Auggie from Covert Affairs) for Bren? Grow his hair out… bleach it fifty times… nom nom nom nom. WEll, him or David Tennant.
Hey CJ, Jane! Glad to know that you aren’t blind, Jane sweetie! I’m so sorry you had that to go through. You guys do get injured on a rather frequent basis… goodness me! And, if this was the wrong place for that idea I just posted, I’m sorry! You know, just delete it.
This sounds really scary. A previous owner of the townhouse had included many different plants in her garden — which I can’t identify. After 4 years, many of them are looking raggedy, so I went out in the yard today to do clean up…and then took lots of pictures and googled gardening books to make sure I wasn’t chopping something that could harm me. Not a lot of gardening got done! But I did dig out the bearded irises that started as 3 bulbs I planted three years ago – and divided them. I have about 24 bulbs (dark purple and purple & white – not sure of the names) and not enough space to plant all of them. I hope the weather’s nice next weekend so I can get them planted.