This is just a little reminder that those lovely elephant ears can be pretty darn toxic. I had forgotten that elephant ears and a number of other similar plants contain large amounts of oxalic acid crystals. These can be a real issue to skin and even worse on any mucus membrane. I managed to get some on my forearms while cleaning out some dying stems and shoots and was quite uncomfortable for about 15 minutes even after washing. The issue was broached again yesterday when my 5 YO grandson picked up a freshly cut stem and began playing with it. Within about 5 minutes he was in pretty acute pain and it took some pretty aggressive treatment to get it resolved. The oxalic acid crystals are extremely sharp and will penetrate unbroken skin causing severe itching, pain and edema. Soap and water (particularly a soap with an alkaline pH) applied for 10 minutes seems to work well. Any exposure to a mucus membrane (mouth or eyes) can be very serious.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Aug 2014 13:02:57 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015