Lady Slipper Rash?

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SlipperFan

SlipperFan

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Has anyone heard of this? http://www.thymewilltell.com/slipper.html
"...So please don't try to dig them from the wild. You may be sorry if you do, as lady slippers can cause a skin rash on susceptible individuals!"

A friend of mine said his was weeding his Cyp. reginae patch, brushing his right arm against the plant as he weeded, and got this rash which is much like poison ivy.

A few more references:
http://www.friendsofjamaicapond.org/PinkLadysSlipper.html
http://www.gardeningclub.com/all-ab...ype/articleview/articleid/491/lady39s-slipper
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/kidsthings/natthing200805/ladyslipper0508/tabid/20216/Default.aspx
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lewisandclark/record_species_232_9_9.html
 
Ray said:
Certainly. You get the rash from the stress of knowing you're digging up a plant that you should not be....
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well, someone dug up some plants from one of the preserves I visit, hope they got that rash

yes, yellow and showy ladyslipper leaves can cause a rash though I've never gotten that close to find out
 
Good thing I didn't know about this when I asked my DH to plant mine this past spring! Gee, honey, I don't know what that rash is................
 
I've heard of that. I've certainly never had problems handling reginae when planting it...I'm tempted to brush my arms over it now to see if anything would happen...but I won't. Then again, I usually don't react to poison ivy....
 
Eric Muehlbauer said:
I've heard of that. I've certainly never had problems handling reginae when planting it...I'm tempted to brush my arms over it now to see if anything would happen...but I won't. Then again, I usually don't react to poison ivy....
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My friend said he'd never had a reaction to reginae before...
 
Then again (probably because there's enough phytochemical to cause a skin reaction) the Native Americans used some of the lady slippers for medicine.

I think the pink's were popularly used for stomach ailments.
 
In my case, brushing up against a few Cyp reginae while photographing them in Minnesota a decade ago, I had a very mild reaction. It was the hairs on the stems and leaves, the irritation was similar to but much, much milder than stinging nettles. When I grew one at home (from Carson Whitlow, not collected) I never had the reaction again. But there are times when the hairs on the stems seem to be sharp, like tiny needles. If you have sensitive skin, it could be a mild problem.
 
Revenge of the plants...

I have big arguments with animal ethics people. They feel that plants don't have "standing" because they can't "feel" (whatever the hell that is, you can't seem to get them to pin down a decent definition). A while back there was a problem in one of the game reserves with the antelope dying. Turns out that the first group of antelope would graze on the Acacia trees and move on. In the mean time the first plant would generate a stress response (i.e. feel stressed) and it passed this message on to the nearby trees so they also started producing poison. So when the antelope arrived at the next tree in the thicket the tree was ready for it.

Where normally they would graze and move onto the next unsuspecting tree now the trees knew they were coming. Many a lazy antelope mets its doom by the communicating trees.
 
The mechanism is chemical, the stressed trees exude a chemical that triggers the creation of the toxin in neighboring trees. This is not 'communication' in the sense it is normally used, there is a better term, but I forget what it is. The result is the same, gastric distress for the antelope.
 
Leo Schordje said:
The mechanism is chemical, the stressed trees exude a chemical that triggers the creation of the toxin in neighboring trees. This is not 'communication' in the sense it is normally used, there is a better term, but I forget what it is. The result is the same, gastric distress for the antelope.
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It was more than gastric stress, it killed the animals. As for communicating, they certainly can't communicate as we do, but that doesn't mean they can't communicate. The truth is, we know next to nothing about plant ''intelligence''. There is a great documentary on the subject. It's called In the Mind of Plants. :)

By the way, our kind of communication is also chemical. It all comes down to chemical processes in our brain.
 
cnycharles said:
yes, yellow and showy ladyslipper leaves can cause a rash though I've never gotten that close to find out
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NYEric said:
Really!? :poke:
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there's usually a lens between me and the plants (except for the unfortunate times I accidentally step on something...)
plus I don't go rubbing myself with them if I can help it!
 
Shiva said:
By the way, our kind of communication is also chemical. It all comes down to chemical processes in our brain.
Click to expand...

I suppose ,to keep the physicists happy, we say it all comes down to electrical potentials, i.e., atomic forces.

Communication is communication. Once a slipper rubs you up the wrong way you will get the message regardless how it was communicated.

I will be more careful with my slippers in future...:poke:
 

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