Kitchen Garden Forum

I have spent a most enjoyable day at Knightshayes Court Near Tiverton and I highly recommend visiting this NT house, garden and grounds.

During my visit I was lucky to receive a tour of the kitchen garden by the head gardener Lorraine Colebrook who gave a most enjoyable and informative guided tour.

During her talk she mentioned that kitchen staff had received quite severe burns from parsnip leaves. I was aware that the leaves contained an irritant but not that it reacted with sunlight. Normally as parsnips are harvested in the late autumn and winter this reaction to sunlight resulting in a nasty chemical burn is not such a problem. However, due to the weather we have had, parsnips have grown very large (many are woody) and are being harvested now and the juice from the leaves getting onto skin in sunlight causes this burning and scarring.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsnip#Dangers

Barney

That's interesting because this morning I picked some chillies and had attributed the burning sensation on my fingers to these. However, I'd also been doing some gardening - without gloves this time - and had pulled off some unwieldly parsnip leaves which had been smothering a row of carrots.

I'm wondering now whether it was actually the parnsip leaves which have caused my problem. I wasn't aware of their propensity to cause problems in this way. I don't think I've ever noticed it before but that's probably because whenever I've been pulling parsnips out of the ground in the past it's been winter time and the leaves have very largely died right back. I've certainly had some very large parsnip leaves this summer too. I shall beware in future.

Are there any other vegetable leaves which cause problems in this way?

I have suffered burns from parsnips on several occasions. I can now only weed around them when wearing gloves and long sleeved clothing. I hate wearing gloves. I should emphasise that they cause burns, not a burning sensation, if that makes any sense: that is, the symptoms are identical to minor burns, causing watery blisters and itching. It's an ugly condition which leaves persistent scabs. The symptoms tend to flair up the next day, usually when it is too late to know to avoid the cause. It's not when we're lifting them when they are most problematic, they need tending through the whole growing season and it is in high summer when the sun is most intense that the burning is worse. To me, parsnips are quite toxic: they have a rank smell and are inedible. Some sort of biochemical incompatibility between me and them, perhaps.

Someone on our site suffered really badly burned arms from parsnip sap.
Sometimes after being burned in this way skin is left photosensitive in the future.

Does this hazard vary with variety ? I have never had problems with "Tender and True", but one year I weeded around some "Gladiator" (I think) and my arms were covered in blisters the next day, and the scars took months to fade. I don't grow that one anymore ...

Tony,

I believe all parsnips are the same, they are part of the Apiaceae or Umbelliferae family which has hogweed in it, so treat with care.

Hope this is of some help

Regards

Arnie

Tony Hague wrote:Does this hazard vary with variety ? I have never had problems with "Tender and True", but one year I weeded around some "Gladiator" (I think) and my arms were covered in blisters the next day, and the scars took months to fade. I don't grow that one anymore ...

It's any variety Tony but the weather conditions affect whether you will burn or not. It is a mix of parsnip sap and sunshine that is the problem.

You can get a similar effect albeit less severe from other plant sap. One reason that strimming grass in shorts isn't a good idea is that the grass sap splatters the skin and under the influence of sunlight can cause blistering.

Strimmed a Hogweed once, never again, blister kept coming back on same place for best part of a week.

I would just add that there are a number of other plants that can cause blisters in sunny weather. I got caught once by the decorative form of the herb rue, and assumed I must have splashed myself with weedkiller. Fortunately I went to a doctor who had worked in Jamaica and immediately recognised the symptoms.