Surge Of The Spurge

Euphorbias may be fabulously versatile plants, but watch out when you cut them – the sap can cause skin problems

BACK when I worked in a botanic garden, a friend took on the unenviable job of pruning a rare specimen varnish tree. With its fern-like foliage, Toxicodendron vernicifluum is as beautiful as it is useful, as in its native China the sticky sap is applied to pots and furniture as a lacquer.

But woe betide the luckless tree surgeon who traps the sticky sap in his Kevlar trousers! Pete did just that, and spent the next week ‘legs akimbo’ in the rare diseases ward of the hospital, prodded by an endless stream of medical students.

Varnish trees aren’t widely planted outside of botanic gardens, but there is a clan of sap-oozers that are, and they can bring you out in a similar rash.