Plant allergy?

Mrs_Veg_Plot

OH and I are helping some friends out with their allotment whilst he works away. 24hrs after doing some weeding I developed red welts across the back of my hand. 48 hrs later these welts were blistered and itchy, they look like burns. I have checked with my friends and they have not used any chemicals on the allotment. Have any of you had any experience with anything similar when gardening or any idea what sort of plants might cause it?

The weeds were only docks, dandelions and chickweed.

emiff6

Well, not likely to be dock as that is used to soothe nettle stings, or dandelion which is edible, or chickweed, which used to be used for nappy rash.

If there was any petty spurge (milkweed - euphorbia peplus), that can give a rash/blister as all euphorbias can, some more severe than others, especially in bright sunlight. Cleavers (galium aparine) can cause irritation too. Don't know of much else among the small weeds that would do that.

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Thanks emiff6. There was no milkweed or cleaver there that I noticed.

Wil have to start gardening in gloves and long sleeves.

a1cat

That would be illogical.

You encountered a nasty weed on your friend's plot that caused a bad reaction.

You won't do that again.

You do not need to take special precautions.

*gem*

Sticky weed does that to me everytime.

RuthnJasper

*gem* wrote: »

Sticky weed does that to me everytime.

Me too. And those ghastly Leylandii trees.

Good luck OP - a bit of calamine lotion should sort you out. I bet your friend feels pretty bad. Never mind - happens to most of us at some time or another. xx

elsien

Lots of plants bring my arms out in a rash, and I haven't worked out exactly what they all are yet. I tend to take an antihistamine before doing any serious pruning or anything which helps because I invariably take the gloves off to do something then forget to put them back on again.

a1cat

Yep don't like most evergreen conifers on my skin - irritate.

rabidbun

Sounds like there was something amongst those weeds or a reaction to one of them tbh. It does point to there being a small weed amongst the dock, dandelion and chickweed though if the reaction is just on the backs of your hands.

I react badly to tomato leaves/stems and can't stay near the plants for more than a few minutes if I am breaking off leaves etc, so could be anything really. I would say that your best bet is either to search through the weeds with gloves to see if there are any odd ones (were they added to a compost heap?) amongst them, or just wait till it happens again next time and take a note of what is there at the time.

Hope you find out what it is!

Mrs_Veg_Plot

Thanks for the advice everyone. Will use gloves next time.

I work in health care and blisters and sores all over the backs of your hand are not ideal.

mrputney08

There are lots.
Others are Oleander and members of the nightshade family.

But the nastiest rash I have experienced, and with the most delayed reaction was from Mahonia Japonica. It has yellow flowers and holly shaped leaves. A well established plant will quite freely put out runners which can pop up anywhere as a small shrub. Could it be possible that one of these runners got into this patch from say a neighbouring plot..These have caused me a rash on my hands and forearm just by accidentally brushing against one and I now stay well away from this shrub.

Brown tail moth can also cause considerable skin irritation, but I reckon it's most likely a plant.

http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1001067