Re: [aroid-l] Care when mowing down unwanted elephant ears

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at msn.com> on 2004.07.12 at 23:24:54(11743) >From: >Reply-To: aroid-l@lists.ncsu.edu >To: >Subject: [aroid-l] Care when mowing down unwanted elephant ears >Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 12:38:55 -0500 > Dear Barbara, I am sorry to hear of your misfortune. What 'elephant ear' was it, a Philodendron, Alocasia, Colocasia or Xanthosoma?? ALL may have this effect, but the only one that once 'got' to me was the leaves of the common (here in Florida) Philodendron 'selloum', I was pruning the old leaves and in a couple of hours my chest and arms were on fire! Julius +More >Yesterday I was mowing down a clump of extremely wet elephant ears that >produce runners underground and was going to spray them with roundup >afterwards. The lawnmower blower got clogged and after stopping the machine >I laid down on the ground and reached under mower to clean out the >clippings. I forgot that elephant ears are loaded with oxalic acid. As a >result my arms and legs are on fire and have been since yesterday. It was >like being stung with thousands of red ants. I will not be doing that >again-ever!!!! >Hope this helps so that no one else makes this mistake. >Barbara >

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