Dermatitis

Interesting thread about skin reactions!

I helped a friend once by removing all of the Agapanthus in her garden. 
Apparently she got a bad reaction to the sap of this plant (I saw her skin
react in real time!  Uugh!).  I've never found any information about this in
the literature I've come across, yet there was no doubt she was allergic (and
she was not a particularly allergic person).

Mention of California's poison oak is typical - there are people who often say
they are not allergic (having never gotten a case).  I was among that throng
for much of my life (I was born and raised in California, and not shy about
hiking into our local poison oak infested hills).  My first case was when I
slipped off a structure into a solidly dense patch of the stuff and had to
wade out!  I've never known such misery, let me tell you!!  Welts all over
every inch!

After that first exposure, it seemed all I had to do was see a photo of poison
oak and I'd get another case.  Gradually, over a number of years, each of
these cases became less and less severe.  Now, decades later, I 'seem' to be
'immune', or have built up some resistance.  This is the profile of some
others' I have talked with as well.  But I would never tempt fate . . .

A very nasty skim rash can be had by slicing Arum corms and handling them, or
indeed the sap of most any of the Aroid family - the sap usually contains
needle-like crystals which provide a pain like you might expect from such
items!


Seán A. O'Hara
sean(at)gimcw.org
www.hortulusaptus.com
(ask about mediterranean climate gardening forum)
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