I had a very sudden and nasty experience in the garden removing a plant, which I think is a milkweed. If you get its sap in your eyes you could lose your sight.
It was a tough, woody specimen growing in the driveway and had a thick white milky sap which was sticky like enamel paint. It got on my hands unfortunately ( I wasn't wearing gloves).
I washed my hands straight away with soap and water. An hour later I rubbed my eyes. This caused an immediate reaction causing both my eyes to become very red and extremely sore. After trying to wash my eyes with water, I went to the after hours clinic. There they immediately gave me a saline wash that lasted half an hour and then checked my eyes were not damaged. Apparently you have to act quickly otherwise the sap can burn your cornea. I am feeling a bit bruised around the eyes but feeling lucky I can see with both eyes.
Yes I believe it could be Euphorbia peplus, a very common plant around here. Its also known as milkweed apparently.
gilligee,
Feb 27, 9:18pm
Yes. Always be careful with that plant. Marks clothes too.
ro42,
Feb 27, 9:27pm
And cancer weed, because the sap is used to treat cancer!
macman26,
Feb 27, 10:02pm
Any chemicals on your skin the recommendation is cold water for at least 10 minutes (or longer) to leach the chemical out, not just until it feels better. The sap is alkaline I believe and yes found to be good at skin cancers
aldis,
Feb 27, 10:11pm
I rang the National Poisons Centre who said you should flush each eye for 30 mins! Its a very dangerous sap (or latex) that can cause blindness if splashed in your eye.
nzmax,
Feb 27, 11:05pm
If I remember correctly, Milkweed is also commonly known as the Swan Plant. the one Monarch caterpillars like.
oh_hunnihunni,
Feb 28, 1:05am
The garden weed variety is spurge, and it stings mucous tissues. Not nice on the mouth. I've never heard of the euphorbias being termed milkweed though.
brightlights60,
Feb 28, 1:30am
Had an elderly friend who was removing copious quantities of swan plants from his plot. Wiped his eye and it was literally glued shut. Spent a day in After Hours getting it seen to. They said the sap is like super glue to human tissue, and the eyes where the skin is thin are very vulnerable.
brandy2002,
Feb 28, 2:43am
I did the same thing a few years ago and also ended up in A &E having my eye flushed like Chinese water torcher for hours- dripping saline and other stuff and numbing stuff- sorry can't remember but man did it sting and burn for soooo long. Tried washing it out at home but the reaction was already well under way, would hate to be without sight and was thankful to have A& E close by. Still love gardening but I am extremely careful weeding milkweed don't want that reaction again. Also have found perennial primulas to cause reactions when in the garden hot sore eyes and burning skin if you get it eg on your arms.
aldis,
Feb 28, 4:23am
According to Wikipedia :
Euphorbia peplus (petty spurge,[1][2] radium weed,[2] cancer weed,[2] or milkweed[2]) is a species of Euphorbia, native to most of Europe, northern Africa, and western Asia, where it typically grows in cultivated arable land, gardens, and other disturbed land.[1][3][4]
Outside of its native range it is very widely naturalised and often invasive, including in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and other countries in temperate and sub-tropical regions.[1]
lythande1,
Mar 1, 7:30pm
The plants share the feature of having a poisonous, milky, white latex-like sap.
In contact with mucous membranes (eyes, nose, mouth), the latex can produce extremely painful inflammation.
Congealed latex is insoluble in water, but can be removed with an emulsifier like milk or soap. A physician should be consulted if inflammation occurs, as severe eye damage including permanent blindness may result from exposure to the sap.
When large succulent spurges in a greenhouse are cut, vapours can cause irritation to the eyes and throat several metres away. Precautions, including sufficient ventilation, are required.
oh_hunnihunni,
Mar 1, 7:37pm
Fascinating. Aren't plants neat?
venna2,
Mar 2, 1:20am
I don't think so. Apparently the term milkweed covers several different plants. I'm still hoping to recognise what we called milkweed when I was a child and put on our warts.
tigra,
Mar 2, 2:44pm
Venna2 I thought that was Rariki? (sp)
devine-spark,
Mar 2, 4:29pm
I thought it was the succulent you find at the beach? For warts that is.
bluefrog2,
Mar 2, 6:54pm
I guess it could be used to "burn" off warts, but I doubt the sap could be used to treat skin cancer. It blocks your skin's ability to protect against UV, so you can get a nasty sunburn anywhere the sap touches your skin. And sunburns are a cause of skin cancer after all. I got some on my hand once, and washed it off before going back out into the garden. Next moment, there's a burning sensation, and the small spot on my hand had turned bright red. Over the next few days, the skin peeled off and I had a small weeping spot exactly where I thought I'd washed off the sap. The scar took over a year to fade.
venna2,
Mar 3, 12:05am
Now, my mother often spoke about rauriki (I just googled the name and that seems to be the usual spelling) . but I thought that was another term for puha? Sow thistle.
But just in case, I will pick some when I next see it in the garden (I'm afraid I treat it as a weed these days) and see if the stem is milky inside. If it is, then maybe that was indeed what we called milkweed. But then, if it was, Mum would have told me it was rauriki? I have to go out soon so don't have time to go looking for it . but I'm curious now!
And of course, my friends and I probably didn't consult our mothers before we picked it, put it on our warts and talked about milkweed .
ang_ck,
May 13, 1:46am
wow, thanks for sharing. I have experience with agapanthus as i try to break the flower stem. Silly me, did that without using garden gloves. My skin reacted very badly with the sap. Nowadays, I wear gloves during weeding.
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