Poison!

 I don't know why it gripes me if people won't learn how to ID plants that cause them misery. 

Take for instance Poison Oak.   There is a lot of poison oak at the park.  Its easily distinguishable by is rouch edge three way leaves.  They turn reddish in late summer and fall.  They contain an oil that will adhere to clothes or skin and produce an itchy rash a couple days later.  You can spread the rash by scratching it then touching somewhere else.   That's because you get the oils on your fingers.

Getting rid of the oil is key to getting over it.  I generally douse the affected area twice daily with rubbing alcohol.  A business in Albany produces and sells Technu, which smells like kerosine, that does the same thing.  

You can get poison oak from your pets if they free roam and get the oil from Poison Oak on their fur.

Then they brush up against your leg or you pet them and now that oil is on you.

Some people even get it from the air, if someone burns it, accidentally or on purpose.

There's a lot of it in spots along the edges of Foster Reservoir and on up the rivers on the banks.

Poison oak in the fall along the cliff rocks at Foster Reservoir

We don't have Poison Ivy or Sumac here.  So far anyway.

We do have some terrible plants, like Poison Hemlock and Giant Hogsweed.

Both are in the carrot family and have purple splotched smooth stems.  Hemlock is extremely poisonous.  The plant is the basis for the Hemlock Society's name, a right to die advocacy organization that is no longer around.

Poison Hemlock

Read about the Hemlock Society here.

Then there's Queen Anne's Lace, that looks a little like Poison Hemlock but does not have the purple blotched stem.   And my favorite, Cow Parsnip, which looks a lot like Giant Hogsweed and grew everywhere in southern Oregon where I grew up.

Because I've not got the best close up vision anymore, nor the memory to remember all the differences, I stay clear of all the Hemlock/Hogsweed lookalikes.

Here's some photos and facts on Cow Parsnip.

Stinging Nettles are common in Oregon and in the park I frequent.  They look like blackberries but they have hairy leaves if you look and the hairs sting.  The leaves make good soup however.  

The milkweed family of plants is another I steer clear of.   I suppose its because my father encountered one somehow when we were out in forest lands to cut a Christmas tree one year.   He nearly went blind after coming in contact with the white sap of some variety of milkweed then touching his eyes.  I remember him languishing on our 70's style plastic orange couch commiserating that he would be jobless if he didn't regain his sight.  He had to wear a blindfold for two weeks I think, while his eyes healed from the milky sap he'd contacted.

Then there are the Camas Lilies.   These lilies were an important food source to the Nez Pierce tribes and introduced to Lewis and Clark on their expedition by the natives.   But never never never eat the bulb of the white flowered camas or you will die.  So, you only harvest Camas bulbs after the flowers bloom.  

Read about Camas Lilies here.

People make jokes that if you were born in Oregon you can name the five species of native salmon.   Same could be said about knowing how to ID Poison Oak, Stinging Nettles and Camas Lilies.  They're all part of our natural heritage and daily jaunts or even occupy our backyards.