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There are other plants with urishiol that can be worth knowing about as well but that is a local thing. Poison oaks (Toxicodendron pubescens, Toxicodendron diversilobum) are pretty common in the US.

My mom had a brush with hogweed that gave her surprisingly bad sunburns many years ago. I keep away from most of the angelicas to avoid a similar reaction.

I recently learned about this tree in Florida where all parts of the tree can cause contact dermatitis, though not with urushiol. Even standing below it in the rain can cause rashes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel



Interesting, I've lived in places with hogweed most my life and never really had a run in with it.

Now Texas bull nettle (Cnidoscolus texanus), while not extremely dangerous is instantly painful and quickly teaches you to give it a wide berth.


Manicheel sounds horrible. It's in spurge family, known for skin irritation in more northern species. This is like the spurge from hell. Native and endangered in Florida.

Hogweed's super scary also. It's all over North America apparently. It contains furanocoumarin, a phytotoxin, and touching the plant sensitizes skin to sunlight. It can cause severe burns, necrosis requiring amputation, and permanent blindness.

A fact I just learned from looking it up: Species similar to giant hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum, are ALSO phototoxic. Did not know that! I thought if you could ID it as cow-parsnip or whatever, it was "safe." NOT. These include - Common hogweed, H. sphondylium -- Cow parsnip, H. maximum -- Wild parsnip, Pastinaca sativa -- Wild lettuces, Lactuca sp. -- Angelica, Angelica atropurpurea -- Queen Anne's lace, Daucus carota.

Other hogweed lookalikes in Apiaceae include the hemlocks, similar appearance but feathery leaves, which go WAY beyond phytotoxicity (all parts of the plant are fatally poisonous to humans).

Fun times. Steer clear! The cool thing about botany is, there's always something more to learn.


Omg. Since moving to Oregon I have developed this weird photo sensitivity on my hands and forehead. I get a bumpy ugly rash if direct sun hits them.

I removed a ton of Queen Anne’s lace from the yard when I moved in.


Whoa. Anecdotal trumps theoretical for sure. Scary. Hope you are OK.




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