Some prescriptions come with a warning that you should stay out of the sun while taking the medication because the drug makes you more sensitive to sunburn. This is called photosensitivity or phototoxicity. There are plants in the wild and even in your own garden that you may inadvertently touch that do the same thing. When you touch these plants and then your skin is exposed to sunlight, a severe burn called phyto-photodermatitis will occur.
One of the worst offenders, and unfortunately the one you are most likely to come into contact with while hiking or hunting, is wild parsnip.
Nothing happens immediately when you touch the plant – or it touches you, most likely on your lower legs or ankles – but as soon as you are exposed to the ultraviolet light of the sun, severe burns can occur quickly. You may not even realize that you have been in contact with the plant until the painful burn or blistering occurs. The burn often appears as long streaks where a leaf or stem dragged across your skin. This burn hurts just as much as if you had run a hot coal over your skin and should be treated as you would any other burn. After the burn heals, the skin that has been burned may retain a dark red or brownish discoloration for up to two years!
Covering exposed skin immediately after contact with the plant prevents the reaction, but the area will remain sensitized for about eight hours. However, unless you study the photos here closely and are always watching for the plant, you’ll probably be unaware that you’ve come in contact with the plant until the burn occurs. Sometimes it takes up to two days for the burn to appear. “Lucky” people will experience what feels like a light sunburn. The unlucky ones will develop painful deep burns with large blisters. Unlike poison ivy, wild parsnip blisters do not spread. Yay.
Wild parsnip also differs from poison ivy in another way. You know how some people brag that they can roll around in poison ivy and not develop an itchy rash? The stupidity of that aside, no one is immune to the burn of phototoxic plants. The parsnip burn is not an allergic reaction; it is a chemical reaction between compounds found in the leaves, stems, flowers and seeds of the plant and sunlight. Every person who gets wild parsnip juice on their bare skin and then is exposed to sunlight gets burned. Even animals with light colored skin covered with little hair will be burned. Warmth and perspiration increases the speed and intensity of the burn.
Wild parsnip plants live for two years. Each plant spends its first year as a rosette of leaves that resemble flat-leaved parsley close to the ground. The next year it sends up a flower stalk with tiny yellow flowers in big, flat-topped, umbrella-like clusters. Think Queen Anne’s lace, but yellow, like dill. The flower stalks can grow to 5 feet tall and are in bloom from mid-June until late summer.
Wild parsnip grows in large patches or as scattered plants along fence rows, road and trail sides, in abandoned fields and unmowed pastures. It is found in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties and has been expanding rapidly in the last few years.
You know how they say you can get sunburned even on a cloudy day, but nobody really believes that? You’ll find out that it’s true if you’ve been in contact with a phototoxic plant!
PHOTO-TOXIC PLANTS IN YOUR GARDEN
Some plants that are commonly grown in herb gardens are phototoxic but not to the same degree as wild parsnip. Even so, wash thoroughly after coming into contact with plant juices from dill, angelica, celery, coriander, fennel, lovage, parsley, anise, and rue before exposing your skin to the sun.
PHOTO-TOXIC COCKTAILS
People who drink margaritas with limes or lime juice, and the bartenders who mix them, should avoid the sun as skin contact with or drinking the juice causes phototoxicity. So does eating or drinking an infusion of licorice, ginger, turmeric, lemon, bitter orange, goldenseal and St. John’s wort.
CONTROLLING WILD PARSNIP
Wild parsnip can be controlled by mowing with a brush cutter just after peak bloom, but before the plants have set seed. One follow-up cutting should take place a few weeks later. If mowing takes place after seed has set, collect the cut stems, bag them and dispose of them in the trash. If the infestation is small, cut the plant’s root with a shovel just below ground level. Always wear long pants, long sleeves, gloves, and glasses when controlling wild parsnip. Working at dusk is advised to prevent exposure to sunlight should you inadvertently come into contact with plant juices.
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