Winter brings new vegetables
We once briefly witnessed a horrible spectacle alongside Hwy.
152 near the top of Hecker Pass.
It was a still autumn day, and an older couple had pulled to the
side of the road. As she cut canes of a plant with brilliant
crimson leaves, he dutifully held his bare arms out, carrying a
generous bushel of poison oak.
Winter brings new vegetables
We once briefly witnessed a horrible spectacle alongside Hwy. 152 near the top of Hecker Pass.
It was a still autumn day, and an older couple had pulled to the side of the road. As she cut canes of a plant with brilliant crimson leaves, he dutifully held his bare arms out, carrying a generous bushel of poison oak.
With no place left for us to stop and warn the couple, we continued on our way, wondering how long it would be before the first red, itchy blisters appeared.
Just about everyone who grew up around poison oak and its loathsome kin, poison ivy and poison sumac, knows the handy little ditty, “leaflets three, let it be,” by heart.
It’s one of the first plants kids are likely to recognize, and for good reason.
I have twice blundered through thickets in the dark. I know the meaning of misery.
When we were boys, a brash acquaintance of mine attempted to prove his immunity to poison oak with a show of bravado. After stuffing his undershorts with fresh green leaves, he continued to play.
Some time later, he learned that he had been mistaken.
Now we have a new plant to start getting worried about. In Southern California areas recently blackened by wildfire a plant with the whimsical name Poodle-dog bush is thriving. Known to botanists as Turricula parryi, the shrubby plant bears stems covered in cup-shaped blue flowers through the summer. It’s found on dry slopes to 7,000 feet elevation. While not yet documented in San Benito County, it is found in Fresno and San Luis Obispo Counties, and just about every place south of there.
A statement from the California Department of Forestry will sound familiar to anyone who’s suffered a case of poison oak: “Touching this beautiful flowering plant can lead to severe dermatitis in many people, typical of that associated with poison oak. Symptoms include blistering of the skin, itchy irritated skin and swelling.”
The most insidious thing about the stuff is it’s exactly the kind of plant one would be tempted to pick and drop in a water glass on the kitchen table.
Since symptoms do not show up until many hours after contact, it can come as quite a surprise to the uninitiated. CDF advises against not only touching the plant, but even sniffing the flowers or “breathing particulate matter.”
Photos of the plant are available on the Web. Calphotos.Berkeley/edu offers dozens of examples.
Just sitting at my desk reading the CDF press release was enough to start me scratching at the imagined welts rising under my shirt.
Poodle-dog bush, bad dog!
