Although quite uncommon, I have read reports of people having dermatologic reactions to irises. It is possible.

Laurie

I have a lady that visits our garden and is allergic to 'Agapanthus', She breaks out with a poison ivy type rash that is rather severe.

randy

Geraniums do it for me, and let's not even mention hyacinth. ::shudder::

It could be just something about your body chemistry and the irritant. One of my co-workers from the past had contact determatitis as a result of wearing jewelry!

Your dr definitely is NOT reasonable or rational, to suggest that you stay out of the garden.

Is the rash on your hands? I have begun wearing gloves in the garden to try to protect my skin from irritants.

I had no idea of some of these plants that are listed as poisonous.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/poison.htm

It looks like if it was iris that caused your rash, avoiding contact with the sap and rhizomes will take care of the problem.

That poison list is shockingly long!

I looked at the Cornell link and found something I bought (and ate) from the farmers market on it: lamb's quarters. I'd never seen it before and felt adventurous. I wonder if the farmers knew it was poisonous, or if they just wanted to see if any fool would pay money for weeds? Anyway, I survived it.

It looks like iris is the only suspect on that list. Sad, but if I can isolate the culprit I can at least defeend myself better. The wild geranium is not on the list, but I'm still suspicious.

Thanks!

Cornell says that lamb's quarters is toxic??? I've always been told it's perfectly edible. In fact, I've known a number of folks who put it in salad along with dandelion greens, nasturtiums, and any and all parts of the daylily.

I've never seen lamb's quarters on a dangerous plants list. Very interesting.

Laurie

Daylily?? I'm surprised we don't see more people gathering some of the billions growing wild. The whole thing's edible? Just a plain old daylily out of my backyard? That's really fascinating!

You mean to tell me that I could walk out to my garden right now and yank a leaf off of my daylily and have a snack? That's really cool to know. Are they any good?

You've really got me wondering now. =)
Brock

Daylilies were grown as edible plants for centuries in Japan and China, though I think mostly as medicinal plants.

I get contact dermititis from many plants, myself, chiefly from weeds and prickly things like juniper, but it doesn't deter me -- also it is rather fleeting, goes away after an hour or so. Unlike poison ivy which can linger for weeks.

I have heard of some people getting really bad rashes from clematis, dictamnus, monkshood, and bergamot (the citrus fruit not the herbacious plant). Never iris, though anything is possible. I think iris leaves are quite toxic to eat but so foul and horrible tasting that no one ever would (I learned this from foolishly sampling them as a child). Iris tubers, ground up for use in perfumery, are called orris root. I recall reading that they were evem used as a face powder, so they must not be toxic to everybody.

Many plants are partly poison and partly edible, like rhubarb, potatoes, and tomatoes, but I don't think too many are actually deadly in minute quantities as in the case of deadly nightshade berries or poison mushroom.

I have a friend who can't go near pruple cone flowers. Twice, she has received a rash that needed medical treatment.

Laurie, It's on the list to the left of the page. I should add that we enjoyed the lamb's quarters, and did not notice any ill effects.

The North Carolina link that Alex provided (above) did not list it, although I really liked the NC list because it gives more info on degree of toxicity.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell Poisonous plants list

Thanks, Terry. Now I think I understand why lamb's quarters appears on the Cornell list. When I read your first reply to this thread, I did some online research on LQ. Although it's perfectly edible, it is cautioned NOT to harvest it from soils that have been chemically treated (fertilizer or herbicide). LQ aborbs these elements into the plant tissue - particularly nitrates - which can be toxic in sufficient quantities. Because of this, it is also recommended that LQ be eaten only in moderate amounts.

Lamb's quarters is a close relative of spinach (from what I've read), which apparently shares the same propensity for accumulating nitrates in the edible leaves.

Learn something new every day ...

Laurie

I believe that Iris is closely related to Orris Root, and alot of people are allergic to Orris Root. Your rash may be an allergic reaction rather than a reaction to something "poisonous". I get quite a nasty looking rash from certain types of grass. It looks horrible, but does really itch. I'd use this to my advantage whenever I felt it was too hot to stay outside for PE in high school. I'd just rub a bit of grass on my legs, break out within mins, and get sent inside for the rest of the PE period. Oddly enough, I've never had a reaction to poison ivy even when I've accidentally yanked it out with my bare hands.
Shae

Caution: you can become violently allergic to something at any time and at any age.

I myself am one of the many many people I have heard of who didn't used to be allergic to poison ivy and now are. I walked through fields of it as a child, unscathed, but I had my first bad case of poison ivy at 18.

I didn't know people were allergic to orris root!

Hellebores and Alstromaeria can both cause bad contact dermatitis with some people. The most common plant that comes to mind is the Rhus tree, which can hospitalise people.

I get dermatitis from yarrow.

Interesting info about lamb's quarters and nitrates. I eat if from my garden when it grows as a weed, but just a few leaves each day...lots of nutrients in it. Different lists have different plants. Usually, the plants that are listed as poisonous are used medicinally in small amounts (like digitalis and rhus).

I get a rash from Verbena Bonariensis - though I've never heard of anyone else getting it from this plant.

Wild morning glory or bindweed contains small amounts of the same irritant oil (urushiol) found in poison ivy. I learned this when I broke out in a horrible rash the day after I weeded the stuff out of my pot ghetto. Now I use Roundup on it, which takes forever to kill it due to the tubers the nasty stuff falls back on.

LynnT

In the Catch-22, irony of fate department, my friend got a nasty rash from--tecnu, the poison ivy preventative!

Wild iris I. veriscolor (large blue flag) rhizomes make my fingers break out, blistering, after I yank them out of a swamp for transplant. I know lots of iris roots and rhizomes contain toxins. It doesnt bother me, I am stupid.

shae8, I knew a fellow that 'knew' that he wasn't allergic to poison ivy, and to prove it to his friends, he ate some. His tongue and lips and cheeks got swollen so hugely that his face was horribly distorted. He couldn't eat or talk. I was surprised that he could breathe without a tube insert.

Gopher purge, a Euphorb, gives me contact dermatitis. As for not seeing any poison ivy, it doesn't have to be green and growing to give you a rash. I got a horrible case in the winter after just touching some dead dried up stuff, the oil was still there. If dermatitis is a problem, wearing long sleeves and washing your arms and legs after coming in from the garden with one of those strong soaps might prevent future rashes.

Concerning plant poisons, most plants have a medicinal use. The really strong herbs like digitalis from foxglove have to be used very carefully or made into homeopathic preparations.

Since this bumped up to the top of the list a year later, I should offer an update.

I never did figure out who was causing the rash, but it definitely was NOT iris. I worked in what looked like a biohazard suit for several weeks, but then gave up and planted a whole bunch of iris in August 05 --with no bad results. I suspect it may have been the wild morning glories that i pulled in the back yard!

You can also get a poison ivy type rash if you're allergic to MANGOS. I kid u not.

I get a poison ivy type rash from St. Augustine grass. When I mow and trim, I have to cover myself from head to toe or I break out in a rash that lasts for 2 weeks. I wash well after mowing and it helps.

I'm allergic to tomato plants - tying them up or pruning them causes problms- but not eating the fruit, thank goodness. Rue is an herb that can cause blistery rashes. Never heard of iris causing problems. Orris root is the dried root of florentine Iris - an old bearded variety with blue-white flowers. I grow it for the flowers and have never had a problem with it.

I agree with the mango comment. Mango plants are related to the Poison Ivy plant.

Years ago when our son was about 8 I would buy mangos and let the kids help themselves. Well, he did. He ate the whole mango but he did not wash his face afterwards. He got a poison ivy like rash all over his face. At school the next day his teacher told him that he could not come to school until it was cleared up in case he passed on the 'poison ivy' rash to another classmate. (She didn't know what she was talking about, because poison ivy rashes do not spread from their oozing but from the original oil, from the poison ivy plant, on the skin breaking out into a rash later). After that instance we made sure that he washed his face and hands really well after eating mangos. Lesson learned...mangos are fine ingested but just not worn on the face.

Brenda

Found this while searching for help for my mom. She recently cut open some green seed pods of Yellow Flag Iris that someone brought in from the garden- both of them wondering what they were. She has been in utter misery for over a week now with a terrible itchy rash. She has welts. She can't sleep and has a significant loss of appetite. Prednisone has helped a little but because she is diabetic, she was only given a short and loss dose course. No amount of creams, lotions or oral meds has helped so far. Baking soda has been best, but not long lasting. She says she's taking a lot of showers as the running water is the only safe way to 'scratch' the itch. Yellow flags are toxic to eat, but be warned- the contact skin reaction is bad news, too.

While I realize that it's possible to be allergic to just about any type of plant protein or animal protein, I have to say it's also possible, and possibly even more liky that you are being exposed to something like poison ivy without recognzing it. Poison ivy looks a bit differnt than poison oak, and it can vary considerably in appearance throughout its life cycle. Poison oak has this variability also. The point is to be able to recognize it at all stages of its life cycle, and frankly, too few people do. I can't count the number of times I have warned people they were about to brush up against poison ivy.

I am reminded of my next door neighbor, who as a teenager was complaining of getting repeated rashes that looked like poison ivy rash. She had no clue as to where she could be being exposed to it. I took one glance at her back lawn, and said, "No wonder! You have sprigs of poison ivy literally all over your back lawn!" It was horrible. And neither she nor either of her parents had recognized the problem, or worked to eradicate it.