OT Noxious plant warning

Now see, there are benefits to living in the desert. This stuff doesn't look like it will grow here. I appreciate the warning just in case they let me out though. : )

Have you seen any of this stuff. Looks kind of neat but sheesh that is scary. Taria

Yeah, like Valley Fever? We had to cancel a trip to Phoenix with our QI because of it....

Yep, I have seen it. If you look at the NY map I live on some green dots, or close enough to make no never mind.

Deserts have their own stuff. One of the reasons that we moved back to a place where water falls from the sky, other than my sinuses, is that DH seems to be rather allergic to choya. There was just no getting away from that stuff either. The thorns get tracked into the house on the bottom of your shoes and it is _everywhere_. The lawn, or what passed for one, seemed to be entirely composed of tightly packed choya thorns, and the miserable things are shaped like caltrops so it gets you no matter what. Poor DH seemed to be swollen up somewhere on his body all the time, he was just miserable with it.

NightMist

Yeah, like Valley Fever? We had to cancel a trip to Phoenix with our QI because of it....

I never have heard anyone being allergic to the stuff or it being that much of a problem. Chollas was a problem in San Diego. They didn't call the little neighborhood lake Chollas Lake for nothing. We don't have it here in the high desert, naturally anyway. I have a pot of the stuff out front. Never occurred to me it was problematic. DH picked up a hunk of it down in Riverside county a few years ago. I am on the edge of the Mojave desert along the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains. Our climate is very different here. We are about 3300 ft. elavation. Think Roy Rogers and Joshua trees. BTW, Roy Rogers home is for sale @ about 750K if anyone is interested. I have spent the last few minutes looking at my book on California nature. There is a lot in it I have never seen. Pretty big state with a lot of different types of areas. Thanks for the heads up NM. Taria

On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 00:33:33 -0500, Dr. Zachary Smith wrote (in article ):

Okay, I have to ask. What is Valley Fever?

A fair part of my family including DSis, DBIL, and various aunts and cousins live in AZ and they all swear that this disease exsists. MSM, who is a nurse, has never heard of it and poo-poo'd the idea that DFather contracted Valley Fever on one of their extended visits to AZ.

Maureen

My understanding is that it's a fungal infection that results from infected soil being stirred up by wind, and then people breathe in the fungi. A couple of years ago, DH returned from a one-month stay in Arizona, and among other things, complained of shortness of breath. An x-ray showed something in his lungs. A biopsy confirmed it was NOT Valley Fever, but rather another type of infection that eventually cleared on its own. But it definitely does exist (at least according to our doctor and the Mayo Clinic).

Valley Fever is, as Louise says, a fungal infection of the lungs. If you live in the Arizona desert, or visit for any length of time, you probably have had VF. Growing up it was not a big deal. There is a "scratch" test to determine if you have or have had it. Mine was one of the fastest and most swollen positives that my doctor had seen. (I was born in Tucson, have spent most of my life in Tucson and Phoenix.) A severe case of Valley Fever, or in some people/animals can be deadly. But that is rare as far as I know. My sister had a Great Dane pup that had to be put to sleep because of VF, but that breed is very susceptible. Whenever VF comes up as a big deal on a TV show (did on "Bones" a while back) we always wonder why. Lock downs and quarantines and such.... sigh.

Yes the spores are in the dust and get riled up with construction or dust storms. you breathe them in and get the disease. If you are reasonable healthy and so on, you don't even notice. If you do get sick there are treatments, including a lot of rest.

Pati, i n Phx

Giant Hogweed is here in Australia too, right across the coast from the west to Tasmania and all of Victoria - it's a worry in Tasmania and Victoria - seems to be spreading rapidly.

It does that. Here in the UK I think it's a Notifiable Plant, and certainly illegal to propagate it or to transport/dispose of the plant or contaminated soil without a license!

We have lots of this stuff round here - it was imported a few decades ago. The council is supposed to eradicate it but with public spending cuts (the ones Obama approves of so much), that isn't going to happen, so we're just going to have to learn to love it.

The burning mechanism is indirect - it sensitizes the skin to light, so the sun burns like a blowtorch.

A friend of mine made himself a huge harmonic whistle out of a piece of it that had been floating in the sea for a while. I've had some of it outside detoxifying to do the same.

In its home range in the Caucasus the seeds are used as a spice - the flavour is supposed to be a bit like caraway or cumin (which are closely related). It should be quite easy to harvest them without getting burnt - by autumn there isn't much toxin left.

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I really hate to burst your hard-won bubble, Sunny, but we do have fleas in Washington. My poor old dog (now gone many years) got them after being out accidentally overnight once. It took us months to get rid of the fleas in the house. They just went from dog, to cats, to people and back for the cycle. We finally got rid of them with pyrethrums and borax and flea baths. I had valley fever when I was in high school in Mesa, Ariz. I didn't know I'd had it until I was over it. Being young and healthy is a good thing that I can look back on with gratitude. I'm glad the good folks at Swedish Med. Center were able to give you some hope with your pain. Donna in Bellevue, Washington, USofA

This was on the local news recently - it's becoming more of a problem here in Quebec too. I went hunting for pictures of the stuff - this site has some good ones:

It also can be found in the Bakersfield AZ area. He never got it in CA...but Mr. Joe did in AZ. Had "bronchitis'" according to the local ER and was treated for it...coughing went on for a coupla weeks until one night at 4 AM he could not catch his breath so DS drove him to Mayo Hospital ER. They promptly put him into the hospital and one of the very first tests they did was for Valley Fever. He was hospitalized for a week or so. he still has deep 'holes' and scars in his lungs....and if he gets 'coughing' for more than a very few days he has to go in and get tested again. Funny, the first ER never tested him for Valley Fever..if he didn't get it in CA WHY would he get it here... was their logic. Anyhow, it is in the air here and some ppl get it and some don't. You don't have to 'dig' in the soil to be exposed. It's like "Lyme Disease" that you get from getting bitten by a Tick in the NorthEast....some ppl get the disease and some don't.

Butterfly

Yes the spores are in the dust and get riled up with construction or dust storms. you breathe them in and get the disease. If you are reasonable healthy and so on, you don't even notice. If you do get sick there are treatments, including a lot of rest.

Pati, i n Phx

ed soil being stirred up by wind,

It can also be kicked up by people (kids in particular) kicking up dust as they walk, by dogs routing around being dogs, construction... basically *anything* that disturbs the soil.

a one-month stay in Arizona, and

mething in his lungs. A biopsy

hat eventually cleared on its own.