Danger!

PurpleDragon · Danger!

Some of you will be hunting around the hedgerows for elder flowers just now.

Please please make sure you are picking elder flowers. My daughter has been at the Dr because she mistook Giant Hogweed for cow parsley and her hand is all blisters. They three all look pretty close if you don't have the right eye, and I would hate for anyone to be fermenting Giant Hogweed!

And just remember - Giant hogweed doesn't start life giant!

Smooth Hound

its good you bought that up pg, if something isnt identified properly then dont eat it, but this is the actual skin problem from the picking, i hope your daughter is ok, a lesson learnt though.

this is elder

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?im..._result&resnum=3&ct=image

wildgarlic

Ouch OUCH! Poor wee girl - hope she's ok and pain free asap.

Townie

I always remember one of the boys at primary school being covered in big blisters all over his hands and arms with touching this when we were all kids about 5/6yrs old... stayed well clear after seeing the state he was in!!

Facts from the RHS on Giant Hogweed

http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0705/gianthogweed.asp

Hope your daughter heals quickly, poor wee thing

PurpleDragon

Fortunately Laura (being coeliac) never puts anything in her mouth without checking with me first. She is really worried about getting glutened and is very sensible about it.

She only picked the hogweed so she just has blisters on her hand. The Dr said a lot of kids come in with blisters all round their mouths because the stems are hollow and perfect for making into pipes for either blowing into or blowing spitballs thru. Nice.

I had my son and another boy down our lane yesterday and I asked them if the plants were different (elder, cow parsley and hogweed) and they said the only difference was the size of the plants. They thought some had grown longer. I showed them the leaves, and then they realised the difference. But if someone came along picking the flowers, thinking they were picking elder, they could easy get the other two mixed in. I don't know what would happen if you ingested it, but I don't like the idea!

Someone said to me that they wondered if the flowers would be as toxic as the sap from the stems. I reckon they would have some toxicity as sap goes into the flowers too.

Smooth Hound

an elder is a shrub, a large shrub, more of a small tree, or hedgerow size if pruned. but the main difference is is that the flowers are on the shrub, where as hogweed is something which grows like perrenials, straight out of the ground each year, and not on a shrub, if you see what i mean