Queen Anne’s Lace Vs. Poison Hemlock

Discussion in 'Crops & Gardens' started by Thomas Windom, Jun 14, 2023.

  1. Thomas Windom

    Thomas Windom Very Well-Known Member
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    Those interested enough to peruse this subforum might already know this but in the interest of safety, I thought I’d mention it. I was reading that Poison Hemlock is spreading and it very much resembles Queen Anne’s Lace. It is good to know the difference. The foliage and flowers are pretty similar but there are a couple ways to spot the difference.
    https://www.willyswilderness.org/post/queen-anne-s-lace-vs-poison-hemlock-poison-or-not

    How dangerous is it?
    “…the story of Jim LeBlond, a 58-year-old husband and father living in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio, who ended up in a medically-induced coma in his local hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) last year, after spending a springtime afternoon clearing his backyard of honeysuckle and weeds. "I saw a lot of white flowers, but I didn't think anything of it," he told the magazine.

    LeBlond, who was perfectly healthy before his close encounter with poison hemlock, spent 109 days in the hospital and was close to death. "I was told many times he might not survive," his wife, Jeanne, remembered.

    As his doctor, Christopher Hayner, MD, pointed out, LeBlond didn't have to eat the poisonous plant to fall ill. "Anything you can touch, you can also inhale," he explained to Good Housekeeping. When LeBlond used a chainsaw to cut down the hemlock, tiny particles scattered in the air, and when he breathed them in, they almost killed him.”
    https://bestlifeonline.com/touched-poison-hemlock-news/
     

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    Last edited: Jun 14, 2023
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That's pretty scary. Mistakenly digesting it is one thing, but passive inhaling is quite another matter.

    As an aside, I read an article quite some time ago about women in the Appalachian mountains brewing Queen Anne's Lace into a tea for use as birth control. So I know that Queen Anne's Lace is ingested in some cultures...but you gotta believe that they know what they're doing.

    Here is an article on how to remove poison hemlock.
     
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  3. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    When you harvest queen anne's lace it smells like carrots. But I never thought that inhaling could be dangerous. The purple on the stem would help identify before the flower appears, like in Yvonne's pix.
     
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