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The weed’s sap, which is found all
over the plant, bonds chemically with
human skin when exposed to sunlight and,
within 48 hours, leads to infammation, red
colouring and itching, weeping blisters,
and eventually black and purplish scars.
“It’s those fower heads you want to
get rid of,” Mr. Muzzi said. “I went out,
suited up, cut all the fowerheads off and
bagged them. Then I nuked the plants with
Round-Up.”
Most susceptible to infection are gardeners, campers and children, who have been
known to use the plant’s large, hollow stems as play telescopes or pea-shooters.
“If a person takes a weed-whacker to this stuff, they get the sap all over,” Mr. Muzzi
said.
While the weed is on the federal government’s offcial noxious weeds list, there is
apparently no national or provincial strategy in place to stop its spread.
Guy Baillargeon, a biologist with the Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility,
called the weed an “emerging” problem, not yet a national one.
30 Canadian Iris Society Newsletter
