Painful Plants

Not only do noxious and invasive weeds damage our natural resources, but they also can be harmful to people. Emilie Justen from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and Roger Becker from the University of Minnesota join us to cover which weeds to watch out for and problems that can occur when we have contact with them, as we kick off the second season of Smarty Plants.

Smarty Plants is a podcast of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Visit www.mda.state.mn.us/plants-insects/smarty-plants for more episodes. Look for a new episode of Smarty Plants every month.

Transcript

Jennifer Burington: 0:19

Welcome to Smarty Plants, a Minnesota Department of Agriculture podcast, informing the public about invasive species that affect our environment and agricultural resources. My name is Jennifer Burington, and I'll be your host. Our outdoor surroundings are filled with seemingly endless amounts of plants. It's part of what makes Minnesota beautiful. However, not all plants are friendly. There are some invasive species out there that can be downright harmful to people. Emilie Justen from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. And Dr. Roger Becker from the University of Minnesota Extension office will cover some of the harmful plants found in Minnesota and advise us on how to avoid them. Emilie grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin and always preferred the outside chores to the inside chores. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison with a Bachelor of Science in horticulture. She worked in the retail and wholesale nursery trade before receiving her master's in horticulture from Iowa State University, and since then, she's worked for the Minnesota Department of VI Agriculture for over 10 years on invasive species and noxious weeds. She enjoys helping people identify plants and figure out how to manage problematic plants. Emilie, we're so happy to have you with us today.

Emilie Justen: 1:28

Thanks, Jennifer.

Jennifer Burington: 1:30

And Roger recently retired as an extension weed scientist in the Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics at the University of Minnesota. Roger grew up in southwest Iowa on a livestock and grain farm. It was while he was attending Iowa State University that he became interested in field research. Dr. Becker started at the University of Minnesota in 1987 where some of his earliest work was around groundwater contamination with herbicides that focused on weed management and forage crops. Dr. Becker has worked closely with the MDA and the DNR on the noxious weed list, weed biocontrol, and management obnoxious weeds.

Roger Becker: 2:08

Thank you, Jennifer.

Jennifer Burington: 2:10

So to get us started here, can we kind of be reminded of what an invasive plant is? Yeah. Um,

Emilie Justen: 2:21

in Minnesota, an invasive plant is defined as a plant species that is not native to the state. Causes harm in a variety of different ways. Uh. For example, to people or to property or to the environment.

Roger Becker: 2:42

And there's a lot of terminology bouncing around. Exotics and invasives are often conflated and, uh, exotics with Bill, with, um, or was made of a official designation by Bill Clinton and with, uh, executive order that started a whole bunch of invasive work in the nineties. And that one has to be an an introduced. Species and for us invasive sometimes, uh, can be a, a native plant that's doing things we don't want to do, or it can be an introduced species. But in, in a nutshell, exotic is always generally an introduced from another country, um, usually another continent.

Jennifer Burington: 3:20

So what does it mean for an invasive plant then, whether it's one that we. Have in the United States already, or one from overseas that's come over that we've planted. What does it mean to be harmful to people?

Roger Becker: 3:35

There's a few plants that, um, that can do things. Dermatitis is a very common one'cause people are out and about moving through various, uh, vegetation areas and sometimes brush up on things. And the classics that most everybody knows is Poison Ivy. Uh, and also Wild Parsnips has become more prevalent in the last decade or so. And those are two known entities that cause some problems when you, so it can be harmful just by brushing up in skin contact. Another issue would be ingestion and there's, there's poison control centers in every state and those poison control centers often deal with accidental ingestion often, often children may be just curious. I see some plant that's got, like, yous have red berries on 'em and sometimes they will very rare, but the kids may eat those and there's some toxic. Components with those, uh, poison ivy, excuse me, poison hemlock. The Hemlock group. We have, uh, water poison bulbus. There's three in Minnesota. It, it is very lethal, but people tend to not ingest it. That's more of an issue. Uh, intentionally they, it would've to be intentional. And, uh, but for, for livestock, sometimes that can be an accidental ingestion and it takes very low amounts of the hemlocks. And there's more hemlocks in recent history in Minnesota just due to a certain climate. Conditions where we have warmer, wetter conditions at certain times of the year. And that's, that's something that some of those, uh, hemlocks love.

Emilie Justen: 5:01

Yeah, and I'll just add on to that too, that dermatitis in general means any kind of like rash you might get on your skin or welts or, um, blisters. That that's what we, that's what we, those are the types of symptoms that, um. Dermatitis is covered

Roger Becker: 5:22

and some of those, uh, just incidentally we'll get into some of the weeds, so to speak, pun intended. Uh, poison ivy is one with, with an oil that you can get the skin contact and you can get React if you're sensitive to it. Not everybody is, but if you're sensitive to it, it will give you reactions. Um, just, just by being on your skin. There's photosynth kind of compounds that, that's what you tend to see in the carrots, like wild parsnips. So sorein, uh, which it really kicks in when you get, uh, photo sunlight, UV light on, on the chemical that's on your skin. Then you get a photo reaction that makes it much more active on the livestock side, a lot of those, uh, light colored like char or hostings of white areas of those animals, if they ingest a lot of these. Photosynthesizing compounds, they can then they'll get blistering on, on the white parts. And not on the dark. But not on the dark. Huh. Interesting. For example. But

Jennifer Burington: 6:15

yeah. And you kind of brought up a few of them already. Um, some of the common invasive plants in Minnesota and both poison ivy, um, well, parsnip and poison hemlock. Are there other ones that are kind of common and harmful to people?

Emilie Justen: 6:29

There are some, there are a few others. Um, something like, um, uh. Uh, Grecian Fox glove is another species that isn't very common in the, in the state, but it does have toxic toxicity to it. Uh, some anecdotally, um, effects of it are from absorption through the skin, but in general, it's another one that would have to be ingested to cause pretty severe toxicity.

Roger Becker: 7:00

Yeah, the Fox gloves are, is, there's several of these plants, uh, have been used for pharmaceutical compounds and, and a lot of that chemistry also is used in the research to develop new pharmaceutical compounds with new sites of action or targets. And one of those is Grecian Fox Club is an old time Digoxin and Digit toin, which I actually got to use in the hospital. I was just really wanting to chat with my cardiologist about that plant, but he was more focused on some other matters at the time. But, uh. And, uh, milkweed and Dog Bane though that family also has some, some cardio active compounds that were actually used a century ago medicinally and Digoxin is still used, uh, medicinally from Fox Glove. Mm-hmm. But it's an ingestion thing and, and if you tame it down and get known dosages, you can do pretty amazing things with some of these compounds.

Jennifer Burington: 7:53

Yeah. It's fun to see what, what one plant can do in all of the uses that it can have, and that, that makes it quite unique. And so you talked a little bit about what some of the common reactions are to some of the plants, um, and how does it happen? We talked about dermatitis and stuff, so when would we, when would you kind of come into contact or how, what would you be doing outside that you would have these reactions or how would you come into contact with some of these common ones like poison ivy and wild parsnip and poison hemlock? Like where would they be?

Emilie Justen: 8:30

Um. So it depends on the species, but, uh, poison ivy is, uh, can grow in a lot of different areas. Um, it does tend to like the sun, so you might see it along, uh, roadsides or fence, fence lines, um, out in the open, uh, or in between the areas, uh, between woodland and wood wooded areas and, and, uh, pastures or fields. Um, I do see it in. In shaded areas too. So it grows in some underst stories as well in the wooded areas. Uh, let's see, wild parsnip like sun. And so you see it a lot in the ditches around mostly southern Minnesota, although it is creeping up into Northern Minnesota as well, along roadsides, uh, occasionally in some pastures. Um, although if it is a pasture that gets mowed regularly, it doesn't tend to. Outcompete grasses necessarily, um, in my experience. But, uh, but wild Parsnip can be in quite a few of those areas too. Not so much in shaded areas, though. It doesn't, it tends to do a lot better in full sun.

Roger Becker: 9:44

And the wild parsnips to me as a plant person, it's just intriguing 'cause it, it really invades Brome, uh, smooth Brome grass ditches. Smooth Brome is kind of ubiquitous in any area that's not really managed a lot of times as smooth, bro.'cause it was used heavily as a forage and it's just happy in Minnesota. And uh, but for whatever reasons, wild Parsnip, which is a biennial. So it needs to produce a new plant from a seed every year. Uh, which means if you can break that seed production, you can start to control it. But that, that little seedling can always establish and duke it out with smooth Broma is just an enigma to me. Um. The, the poison Ivys are perennial, and so they'll, once you have them, they're there and you need to do something to control that perennial structure. You'll encounter 'em in places year after year after year. Whereas the wild parsnips, if there's something that supports that population, it'll keep popping up, but it can come and go and move around. I have wild parsnips showing up behind my house in Maplewood in the city all the time. So somebody's bringing in something is bringing in some seeds. Uh, the hemlocks we haven't gotten into yet, but the hemlocks tend to, like most of them are associated with the wetland, low lying areas. Uh, there's perennial and biennial hemlocks as well. Uh, and you'll see particularly the, the poison hemlock, which is an introduced species, is moving in from the south. It was very common in. Well, I grew up in southern Iowa. It was in Missouri, but now it was in, it was in southern Iowa about a decade ago, and now it's very common in, in southern Minnesota. Mm-hmm. Moving along corridors and spread being a biennial, spreads the seeds and it loves those wet areas as well. Mm-hmm. Yep. You might want to, do you want to mention the oils, Emily, on uh, the difference of oils, uh, for the poison hemlock, uh, is Yeah,

Emilie Justen: 11:32

sure. Um, so, and, and there's different ways or different.

Jennifer Burington: 11:39

Different ways that the reactions happen or like things have to happen in a certain order for the, for you to have, yeah. What's the word I'm looking for though?

Emilie Justen: 11:46

For like plant. Part SAP oil versus oil?

Roger Becker: 11:51

Well, sap the oils just tend to be more durable as part of the challenge. So yeah, when, if you see these plants and you get exposure to them, you, um, poison ivy is notorious for moving, like your, if you're really sensitive, your pet can run through a patch of poison ivy come back and greet you and you'll pet it. And oils will transfer from surface to surface. And they're a little more durable on the surface. Take a little more to wash 'em off. Mm-hmm. Uh, there's other compounds and other, uh, the oil makes a, a much more durable, transferable, and absorbable compound, just chemically speaking. And a lot of these species that we're not gonna talk about today also have that kind of a trait.

Emilie Justen: 12:32

Well, and compound too. That's kind of the word I was looking for. Mm-hmm. Um, that these plants have different types of compounds for moving these. Harmful chemicals around. And just like Roger was saying, poison Ivys has an oil that if you break the leaf or the stem, uh, the oil gets on your skin, it causes your skin to react and causes a rash. Um, where, and that oil is different from the compound that's in wild parsnip, which is a sap that has to. Come in contact with your skin and have sunlight to react to. Cause those blisters. So it's almost more like a chemical burn. Yeah. The wild parsnip's more like a chemical burn than a, an actual like. Rash that, that poison ivy causes.

Roger Becker: 13:19

And to the, the plant enthusiast. Uh, the poison ivy actually has little glands at the base of the leaf, uh, along the pit that exude these oils. And there's a, we're not talking about it specifically, but there's. Is poison sumac. Mm-hmm. Uh, but it's, it is pretty much just in the metro area. I might put a plugin for Minnesota Wildflowers, a website. If you just Google Minnesota Wildflowers, all of these will come up and it's a very useful, um, uh, website for all sorts of of plant. Questions and thoughts, and Id in particular works very well. And if you're out bouncing about the, uh, and you have your phone, um, iNaturalist and other, uh, programs like that are very useful for ID things, if you take a picture of it, give you some suggestions, if not the actual plant, and get you in the, in the area of what you're looking for. But if you look, uh, you can see the distribution on Minnesota wildflowers mm-hmm. Uh, they, and they do a very good job of keeping that up to date. Um, so the poison hemlock is, is a rarity in min, pretty much, excuse me, poison sumac is pretty just along, um, kind of the metro area right now and distributing a little bit further, but not that common. But it's another oil, a glands at the base of the leaf. That's why I bring it up In relation to poison ivy. Because the oils can cause some problems. I did time and time and it was a good time, but I did time in the quad cities in Iowa in one of my jobs before I came to the University of Minnesota and there particularly eastern Iowa going east and south. Uh, there is eastern poison sumac, which tended to be a vining plant and upright growth. It shrubs that can be up to five, six feet tall along a fence row, and you go walking through the woods and it's up. Like you see grapevines here up and, and going across the branches above your head. A much different cat than the, uh, Western poison ivy, which is more common in Minnesota, but both are here. Eastern's just kind of around the metro. Uh, and going south, but rare. Mm-hmm. But the Western tends to just be a ground cover about, you know, a foot or so tall at Rosemont where we had our, our beef farms that we don't use anymore. A lot of those Broome pastures had a, have quite a bit of poison ivy moving as just a ground cover that's about half the height of the brom grass and you start treading lightly. When I was trying to do some other. Work on other species in those, in those areas. Uh, but so you don't, you look down and, and if you get a shrubby plant, it could get up maybe two feet tall at most for what. Poison ivy we tend to have here. Mm-hmm. If you go cruising out east and hiking or you go south and hiking and you, the, the leaves look very similar, uh, but you, you'll see it up and about and it just freaked me out when I, I realized it was poison ivy over my head. When you're trying to, you just, you know, part the leaves and wade through to try to get to some spot. If you're really trying to get to some, you know, out of the way places for some plant that nobody else in their right mind would want to go look at. Yeah. Uh, that's why you can run into some of those kind of things.

Jennifer Burington: 16:15

Yeah, and to get a little bit of help with Id as we talk about all these different species and, um, making sure that you know exactly what it is that you're coming into contact with or that you did one thing, um, for just plants in general and noxious weeds or invasive insects or, um, diseases or spots or anything that you see that's wrong with a plant or you find a plant that's kind of new and you don't recognize it, and it might be something invasive. You can always report it in. To the Department of Agriculture. We do have a report a pest, um, line, and it's, uh, it's easiest just to go to our website and just, it is www dot mda. dot state dotmn dot US slash and then this is all one word, report a pest, and that'll give you the phone number that you can call and leave us a voicemail on what you're finding. You can send us pictures. Um, you can use an online form. Pictures are always very helpful. I know Emilie, you get a lot of pictures mm-hmm. Throughout the summer and throughout their growing season. Um, so usually we ask, um, at least what county it was in and then. If you can send a picture, 'cause pictures are worth a thousand words and when you're trying to identify everything, it's, it's, it's definitely helpful for it to have that So. Um, that's one way. And I know Roger, you mentioned iNaturalist. That's another app that you can use, um, to report things in that you're finding and, um, people will help you identify it. Um, so we also get those as well too. So any of the way eventually, if it's something that's bad or new or invasive. We do, uh, the Department of Agriculture does hear about it, um, through all the different ways, whatever way you're comfortable with reporting in. Mm-hmm.

Roger Becker: 17:57

And I might add, if you're taking photos, having been on the receiving end of photos, do try to get a closeup of some of a characteristics and, and try to get a higher resolution image. Because it's, uh, a lot of times you get a blurry picture of something. It, we may be a dichotic, may be a grass and it can get kind of challenging, but, so just do due diligence and take a, a good high rez pitcher if you can, uh, and take some identify of the whole plant. And then some identifying characteristics like of leaves and closeups of the stems, patios, flowers in particular. Mm-hmm. If you have flowers. That kind of thing would be very helpful. Yep. If you ever wanna send a plant in, that's not as common anymore, but that does happen. And if you do do that, uh, put it in a paper towel in a plastic bag and uh, mail it on Monday. Don't mail it on Friday or Thursday because they sit in a hot truck somewhere and get moldy.

Jennifer Burington: 18:53

Yep.

Roger Becker: 18:53

That's a good point.

Jennifer Burington: 18:54

You can always, yeah, like Roger said, put 'em a paper towel, wrap 'em in a paper towel. Put 'em in a bag. Put 'em in your fridge, keep 'em cool. Um, nice and cool If you're gonna be collecting samples, um, or if you're gonna be, if you're out hiking and you find something you wanna. Take better pictures at home or if you don't have your phone with you or camera or something like that. So that's always helpful too. And scale is sometimes, um, helpful. If you put your hand up there, at least you can measure your hand and tell us, like, this was approximately a 10 inch tall plant and it was this location. So not everybody carries like a tape measure in their pocket, like me, or has one in the car or a few. So going, getting back to some of these like, um, poison hemlock, we kind of didn't cover what poison hemlock exactly does. What makes that, um, harmful, um, to, to people, because we kind of talked a little bit about poison ivy and um, wild parsnip and stuff and those being the dermatitis and the rashes and things like that. What does, um. Uh, poison hemlock. Do do.

Roger Becker: 19:58

Yeah. So the Poison Hemlocks is, it's also a Carrot family. I call it Carrots Gone Wild one, wild Parsnips and other in, there's other carrot, a lot of carrots members, including a lot of Carrot family members that we eat. And there's different levels of all sorts of chemicals in 'em, but the ones like Wild Parsnips has. F uh, fumaroles, the, uh, Solan, which is that compound that does the dermatitis on the skin. Uh, the hemlocks, if you look 'em up on Minnesota wildflowers, for example, uh, you'll see the genus species and the, a lot of these plant names. Uh, the genus is also part of the chemical name. Uh, when the discovering new, a lot of these are new discoveries of chemical structures, and they'll be named, uh, the, the, the common name for the chemistry will be based on the genus. So, uh, it's CQ toxin for, uh, the native, uh, hemlocks. And Kain is in the introduced, um, hemlock, poison hemlock, the Biennial, but they all three, they're very, very similar in toxicity. You don't need to get hung up on the chemistry names, but that's an ingestion compound. Uh, um, so. The hemlocks, they, and they look, so the challenge is a lot of carrots look like carrots and they start to flower. They're generally white or yellow. And if, and they can get confusing. And uh, for example, if you're in the wetlands, we were looking for Canada thistle, biocontrol, weevils up in, uh, Northwest Minnesota. And we came across. What I thought was a good hemlock poison hemlock, but it was water parsnips, uh, which are very similar, and water parsnips is not toxic. You'd have, again, the hemlocks, you don't worry about coming into contact with them. So they're more curiosities to people like me. Um, whereas the, uh, wild parsnips are giant hogweed, which is in Wisconsin. If it starts to get into Minnesota, then you do not, and giant hogweed is big. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you'll, you'll be parting the, and going through the understory trying to get somewhere if you have a lot of giant hogweed showing up. It is a bit, and it is a very unique, very large leaf. So it's a little unique, right? And the carrots gone wild group that it, it's, it's a little more discernible before it flowers and things. Wild parsnips. If you're a native and prairie enthusiast, you'll see the Meadow Alexanders and Golden Alexanders, the two native, uh, carrot family members that, uh, they look like small versions of wild parsnips. And if you have a, a prairie that's having some issues. So it's a little open where wild parsnips can invade. You may see the two co-mingling, especially in South. Central and Southeast Minnesota. And, uh, but they, again, if you go to some of these ID sites, the wild parsnips to the, if you take a little time to look at the leaf structure and size, they are, it is very easy to tell the two natives apart from the the wild parsnips. Um, on leaf structure. So the two natives and the wild parsnips all have yellow flowers, so, uh, it, the wild parsnips in general is just a much larger leaf structure and a little different, uh, stem. Mm-hmm. Look and feel. Don't feel. Yeah. Look to it. Um,

Emilie Justen: 23:04

yeah, and I'll just add that the hemlocks poison, there's poison hemlock, which is not native to Minnesota, and then we have water hemlock, which is native, and they grow in similar. Wet areas. Um, um, I think we, I think it may be poisoned. Hemlock may be a concern in areas that might be moan mowed for hay in some cases. So, uh, because once a plant like that dries out, it can, and, uh, cattle are pretty discerning when thing, when plants are alive. Um, but. But sometimes when things are hate and dried out, uh, they don't have as easy of a time, um, picking through stuff. So it could be a concern in some of those areas that, um. Might be used for hay as well if they've got some of those hemlocks in it.

Roger Becker: 23:57

Yeah. That could be a whole nother session on non livestock toxicity. There's, and a lot of the great toxic toxicology work came out of the livestock side. There's, when I was first getting into weed science, I didn't know that was a thing, but when I discovered it in the seventies, it's like, oh my goodness. There were, there were article after article of the Western Range people. Doing new research on toxic plants to livestock and, uh, lot, and then that informs the human side as well. Mm-hmm. But on poison ivy, the, the. Excuse me. The, uh, poison hemlock, the cattle, uh, do avoid 'em. And the, the, the notable situation where you do get more of the issues coming up is in the spring, very wet. The little rose, the little plant, uh, is just starting and they'll be grazing along and it might accidentally grab the chutes with grass and it pulls the road out. Of a wet, wet soil area and that, that's lethal. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's problematic. So just be aware and, and keep your livestock away from. Right. We can also talk about pets and all that other kind of fun stuff too in another session.

Jennifer Burington: 25:01

Mm-hmm. Yeah. There's definitely more, more than just human impacts on all of these plants that are, that are toxic. Um, so. In talking about that, we talked a little bit about having our pets come back after they run around, and then you have some things on, some oils on them, and then you get them on yourself. What are some other ways that we can protect ourselves from these plants? Um, if you can give some examples on just like good practices on if you're going for a hike and you wanna avoid poison ivy.

Roger Becker: 25:31

Stay on the path, number one. And it also helps protect if you're in an air space, if you're in an area with plants of spatial concern or if spatially endangered species and stuff too, or just high traffic areas where just stay on the path and resist picking that beautiful flower and things like that. Uh, just enjoy, but don't take, don't trod. Uh, that helps preserve the area as well. Uh, you do a lot of the parks, if they have poison ivy, they will try to manage it around the entrances and the paths and the gates. They generally would know where that stuff is. Uh, the federal state and, uh, the NGO groups that have access areas, they generally try to manage it to avoid contact, uh, poison well parsnips, just be aware, uh, if it's a big thing sticking up and it's got a yellow flower and it looks like one of the carrots, uh, probably. Pay attention. Uh, if you are in a prairie, that's where you'll see the natives. Uh, but if you're not in a prairie, you, you generally don't see the meadow. Alexanders, uh, golden Alexanders showing up in a brogra ditch. Uh, it can happen, um, with, that's another story. But the, a lot of these, uh, old natives are resurging in areas with. Um, herbicide spray and mowing in ditches. So you'll be surprised what shows up in some of those areas nowadays, which is encouraging to me. Yeah. Uh, but if you're in, if you're in an area where you, and you see the yellow carrot kind of a flower, it's probably, it could very likely be wild parsnip, especially in east southeastern, southern Minnesota up through the metro area. Just pay attention and think about it, look at it a little more closely before you start playing around in the area.

Emilie Justen: 27:10

Yeah. Um, I like to stay on the path and, you know, being aware of what might be around you. Um, and then we always make sure to tell people to wear long pants, long sleeves, boots, um, gloves. If you're working in an area that might have one of these. Species in it. Um, and that's important too, if you're in a wooded area or a grassland area where there might be ticks you wanna be wearing, um, pants and checking for, uh, ticks when you're done being in the area too. Uh, we we're not gonna talk about ticks today, but uh, that's also another concern and it, it does certainly harmful to humans and animals. Um, uh, ticks are so just make sure to. Uh, cover your skin for any of these things.

Roger Becker: 28:04

And I will add on like poison ivy, which the, the Western poison ivy, that was kind of a ground cover. We were doing some prickly ash, uh, control because it's a native too, but it can be a problem in some grazing pastures. And it's, it's a very sharp. The thorns are just nasty. But, uh, in that area where we had an understory of a poison ivy, so we just wore rubber boots, um, and boots that are high enough to stay above that ground cover canopy. And then don't touch your boots until you wash 'em off with some soap and water.'cause it isn't oil. So you can have the oil on your, like rubber boots. Just don't, if you wear leather shoes in there and you're sensitive, you might have some issues. I've learned that I'm probably not that sensitive, so I could be a sentinel person. Send me out and see if I can find the stuff for you. But, uh, for especially people that are really sensitive, you can wear some protective gear, wash your clothing if, uh, if you have it brushing up on pants. But if like rubber boots, just simply wash it off a little soap because it is an oil soap and water. Mm-hmm. And it'll come right off.

Jennifer Burington: 29:04

Yep. And it always good, good habit too when you're, if you're hiking or you're out working around and stuff to brush off your boots and clean 'em off. Like you don't wanna accidentally bring noxious weed seeds or other, um, other things back home or wherever you take your boots next, um, that you go. But to kinda wrap up, what should people do if they may have come in contact with one of these plants and are experiencing some problems?

Roger Becker: 29:31

If you, especially if it's an ingestion issue, uh, accidental ingestion or children ingesting something, uh, call the poison control center and that number is 802 2 2. 12, two. Two. Again, 802 2 2 12 2 2. And that's a Minnesota regional control, uh, poison center. They don't call 'em control centers anymore. That was my old school days. Uh, also just, uh, look online for some resources. Um, if it's, uh, if it's on your skin, definitely wash soap and water, wash 'em off. Um, for starters anyway, do a little reconnaissance online.

Emilie Justen: 30:09

Right. Yeah. Poison control. If it's an emergency, of course call 9 1 1 and go to the er. Um,

Jennifer Burington: 30:16

yeah. Well, thanks. Thank you Roger and Emily for coming today to talk about some stuff. Um, and then teaching us all about, um, common hazards of invasive plants in Minnesota. What we can do to look for them and how they affect us, and, um, what we can do if we happen to come in contact with them.

Roger Becker: 30:35

Um. Yeah, I would just close saying, do get outside, do enjoy nature, don't fret about these plants. Just be aware. Uh, and these are uncommon, uh, encounters, generally speaking and just so just, we're just increase, increasing awareness, get out and enjoy.

Emilie Justen: 30:52

Yeah, I agree with that. Uh, definitely get out and enjoy. Take your dogs with you. Don't worry about, uh, poison ivy. Give them a bath, I guess, if they need it. But yeah, get out and enjoy it.

Jennifer Burington: 31:04

Yes, it's definitely, we love Minnesota here and there's plenty to explore and plenty of places between all the county parks, city parks, state parks, national parks. It's, uh, great adventuring in Minnesota here. Um, so your advice should go a long way in helping to keep us safe from, uh, the negative effects of any of these, um, plants that we kind of talked about. Poison ivy, boiled parsnip, and poison hemlock. Um, so yeah. Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Thanks, Jennifer. This has been Smarty Plants, a podcast from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Our producer is Brittany Raveill. Our editor is Larry Schumacher, and I have been your host. You can learn more about pests and other invasive species that affect our environment at www.md.state.mn us. And while you head to our website, we'll be working on the next episode of Smarty Plants. See you there.