Palm related injuries

[MattyB]

I poked my hand on the leaflet tips of a Phoenix reclinata today.  It began to itch and get swolen.  With a closer inspection I had tiny little splinters in each spot that he leaflet tips touched.  I knew they were sharp but I didn't realize that they leave you with little splinters that cause irritation.  Has anyone seen these tiny leaflet splinters on Phoenix?  What other palm related injuries have you guys had? :: (my emoticon poked his eye)

[chris.oz]

When planting my Brahea armata in a raised bed,  I decided to place a 2" diameter tube in the soil to get water down to the root zone.  Using a handy box cutter on the workbench, I cut the end off my thumb when it slipped.   Fortunately I held the end on,  and the wound has healed,  but I was really cursing when it happened ,  for the pain, as much for using the wrong tool for the job.  A hacksaw was the correct tool.

The tube works really well and the B armata has grown 3 leaves since planting.

[doubravsky]

A few months back my 15 yr. old son was sliding down an outside bannister without a shirt on, fell off into a Washingtonia that was about 4' tall.  The armament on the petioles shredded his chest and arms pretty good.

[JakeK]

I've gotten stuck by the needles on my Rhapidophyllum hystrix quite a few times. Some are very long and thin that it's hard to see them. I had one go pretty deep into the side of ring finger. Hurt worse than I was expecting. Managed to break the tip off under the skin too, had to dig it out with an exacto knife and tweezers.

[DoomsDave]

Ah, the injuries of palms.

Phoenix are a some-ba'-beech, as an old Italian guy in my ancient hood might have said.  Those thorns are cruel.  Thorn removal is one of the major headaches of commercial date culture.  

There was a guy who fell into the crown of a Phoenix canariensis out in San Bernardino (he was working on a building and fell off and would have hit the ground, but the phoenix was there instead) and it took hours to extricate him.  

I've gotten lots of little spines from palms like Livistona, that embed themselves in your skin, then make little lumps, which eventually disappear as your body "eats" them.

And, a Phoenix spine under the fingernail.  !@#$%^&!*!*!&!@#$%^&!&*!

OUCH!!!

Ahem.

And, a really unpleasant surprise, a poke in the eye by the new spear of a Rhopalistylus cheesemanii that left it really blood-shot looking -- but got better.

dave

[osideterry]

I decided to plant/transplant five 15-gallon sized plants on a Saturday last March all by myself. Kind of a musical chairs thing. Dig up dead foxtail, insert C. gigas in it's hole. Dig hole for robelini, dig up robelini and put in new hole, plant A. alexandra in old robelini hole. Dig up royal and place in pot, plant big bird of paradise in royal's hole. The next day I planted three 5-gallon bamboos.

I was convinced I'd pulled a groin muscle or a hernia for several months. The digging was the worst, as anyone who lives here knows, a pick-axe was used more than a shovel.

[JakeK]

(Dave from So-Cal @ Jan. 03 2007,17:54)

QUOTE

And, a really unpleasant surprise, a poke in the eye by the new spear of a Rhopalistylus cheesemanii that left it really blood-shot looking -- but got better.

Yowzers! A shot to the eye would suck!

Dave, the old italians here in Cincy say it the same way. Must be an italian thing because the cincituckians don't share much in common with those folks from up in the north. First time I have ever seen that phrase written though. I'll have to remember that.

[Jeff Searle]

Over the years, I have been stuck,poked, ripped, scraped, and any other action word that ends in "ed" that you can think off. The worst has to be getting poked with a Phoenix roeb. thorn. The pain usually last for a few days, and especially painful near the fingernail!! The next would be, getting stuck with spines on a Aiphanes palm. Thats a lose-lose situation that's not very pretty. And third, getting ripped on the hand or arm with teeth on the stems of Copernicia palms. Alot of times, they just break off in the skin and have to be removed. Allright, I'm out of here.

Jeff

[KatyTX]

I was pruning my p.canariensis and stepped into one of the fronds on the ground - stuck into my ankle

I (unknowingly) had a 1/2 inch thorn imbedded in my ankle for 6 months...

Phoenix = ouch

[Utopia Palms]

Hi all, I think there are quite a few pages on the net all about phoenix poisoning its quite dangerous what these can do! Also salacca.

[DoomsDave]

(JakeK @ Jan. 03 2007,18:59)

QUOTE

Dave, the old italians here in Cincy say it the same way. Must be an italian thing because the cincituckians don't share much in common with those folks from up in the north. First time I have ever seen that phrase written though. I'll have to remember that.

Yeah, I got it from both a novel and real life.  In a novel, some Mafia guy's mom kept calling people who opposed her son (including the guy who eventually blew him up) a some-ba'-beesh!

Then, not long after, on my paper route (I was fifteen or thereabouts at the time) some Italian guy on my route had the silliest little toy poodle I'd ever seen.  

The guy had had his house bombed a while back, no joke, and I just figured he was a Mafia guy too.  (Call me bigoted, if you want, I was, what can I say?)

That poodle growled and grabbed my pants leg.  I didn't do anything, because I was convinced, well, you know I had an overactive imagination then.  And, Cleveageburg was overrun with Mafia types, who blew each other up from time to time.  (Including some poor b@st@rd who happened to have a bomb filled with nails and pointy wood screws explode in front of him.  Ouch!)

The guy sees what's happening, and says to me, "Don't take-a 'dat cheet' from dat' leetle some-ba'-beech!  Just-a kick-a heem', like a dees!" and he hauls back and kicks-a-heem.  Just like-a dat.  And, it was Christmas, and he tipped me twenty bucks, a lot of bones in 1975.

The guy turned out to be a building contractor, who apparently had some kind of trouble with goons.  Far as I know, he was not any kind of goon himself (except when 'dat some-ba'-beech messed with-a heem).

So, I learned a bit, including about being wary of stereotypes, but, well, some of them are at least partially true . . . .

Boy, this is a real digression, isn't it?

dave

[PalmGuyWC]

Absolutely, one of the most dangerous palms around is Trithrinax campestrus.  The tips of the fronds are like needles.  One does not just brush by a T. campestrus.  I have been jabbed many times but the worse was when I was pulling some weeds near one.  A weed snapped off and my elbo snapped back into the frond.  My arm went limp and it hurt like hell.  It took months before the pain finally went away.  Honestly, my arm and hand was so weak, I had to pick up a coffee cup with my left hand for weeks.  I think there must be something toxic on the tip of the fronds.

My garden helper also jabbed one into his knuckle.  He was out of service for weeks with a swollen knuckle.

Phoenix can be nasty too.  That's the reason I only have 4.  I hate pruning Phoenix, and my bushey T. campestrus is two years over due for a pruning.  After screaming several expletives at the campestrus, my garden guy said he would never get near that palm again! My garden helper has a college degree, and he's really not a gardner, but he's a damn good worker when he's in the mood.  He's more tempermental than a French chef, another thorn in my garden!

Dick

[DoomsDave]

Dick:

Yeah, you ain't jivin' about T. campestris.

GADZOOKS, those expletives are spiny and nasty.  I try to imagine the despair of an Argentine gaucho riding through a bunch of those on a spooked horse . . . .

   

I have one, too, and it's going to be either moved, or re-moved.

dave

[Patrick]

I was just getting enthusiastic about palms and this guy had a really nice, young, mature Chamaerops humilis in his front yard. So, as palm guys do wether they know why or not, I went to go get some of the seeds off the tree. Easy, right?? WRONG! I got a little careless and when I was diving in for another round of seeds, one of the thorns from a petiole stuck in and broke off in the back of my scalp! OW! That was the craftiest I've ever had to be with needle nose pliers since I couldn't see what the heck I was doing. If any of you guys have ever wondered why palms even have thorns you only need to look in the mirror. It's a love-hate relationship growing these things!

P.S. anyone want some 4 year old seedlings?

[Matt in SD]

A couple years ago I was taking down a giant bird of paradise that was mingling with the power lines.  It happened to be right next to a Phoenix roebelinii.  Well the bird started falling in a bad direction (towards the power lines) and, full of adrenaline, I jumped around to stop it and my arm swung into the crown of the roebelinii.  My hand started having spasms and I looked and saw a bloody entrance wound and then about an inch a away from that was a lump where my skin was raised from the back end of the spine that was lodged in my forearm bone (not sure which one).  As it went in it stretched the skin on my arm and then it broke off and the skin went back.  My hand was completely paralyzed since the spine I think had pinned some of the muscles that controlled the fingers.  The worst part was that I had to finish the BOP job one armed to keep it from taking out the power lines.  

I went to the emergency room and after cutting a nice little incision to get to the spine, and having the nurse help him pull the muscles back to give him access to the back end of the spine...it took him about 30 minutes of digging and prying with various instruments from tweezers to finally locking hemostats to finally dislodge it from the bone.  It took some serious force to get it out of there.

But it didn't hurt much at all once it was out.  I think the lingering pain from these is more due to actual material left in the puncture wound rather than any chemical or biological material on the spines.

Matt

[Zac in NC]

Thanks for the laugh Dave. You-a kick-a the some-ba'-beech?

Zac

[Kris]

Hey you guys are capable of scaring the jeasus

out of me !

since you guys all know how much i love phoenix

purely for its thorny looks.

and as far as trimming of these varities goes i do it

my self.but will hire one it crosses my lader size..

Still taken during trimming_

[BS Man about Palms]

Man my stab in my head at night by my Roebyxreclinata that dripped warm blood down my face sounds wimpy compared to you guys... I'm lucky!

[redant]

Phoenix sylvestris spine that went right between my finger and finger nail. You could see the spine 3/4 the way down the nail. It took me several days before I finally was able to "dig it out".

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

I know I've posted this here before, but you Phoenix warriors need to be reminded: When poked,skewered, impaled, stabbed or otherwise attacked or killed(well, maybe not killed)...take some Benadryl. It works.

And if Dick was a team player, he'd throw himself on the Tr Campestris to see if it works for that palm.

[BobbyinNY]

I've thrown my back out several times carrying around all my huge potted palms... Last Spring my shoulder was hurting for days after struggling with my Queen Palm getting it situated.... It seems that NO ONE wants to help me when I  need them with the palms... But they all offer, only to not be available on the days that I need them.

[PalmGuyWC]

Steve,

Rather than benadryl, I use caution when working around the T. campestris.  It only takes a few stabs to learn.  A stab from one is worse than a wasp sting.  I have two large, seed bearing, T. campestris, but they are both set well back from foot traffic...but then I planned it that way.

I'm going to start a thread soon on palm garden design.  Carefull planning and placement can save a lot of work later on.

Dick

[Dave-Vero]

Over a decade ago, I was cutting the grass around a Butia reclinata whose leaves extended out beyond its bed.  As I brushed by a leaf (I'm pretty sure I was wearing glasses at the time), a leaf tip penetrated my left ear, puncturing the ear drum.  Of course it was the first day of a three-day weekend.  The wound healed itself, evidently quite well.  I did NOT kill the offending palm.

[Kathy]

These are all gruesome, but my winner so far:

Matt in SD!  Yuck!  Digging in the arm to the bone takes it for me.

Me, just Phoenix pokes including under the nail, but I'm feeling lucky.

[Adam from Oz]

I was very carefully pruning off the rubbish from my CIDP and was about to cut off the spines (I insert them into a piece of polysterene and call it "art")

Walked over to start the process and got a full 20 cm spine up a vein in my leg.

Bled profusely and off to the hospital I went.

The vein collapsed and is now gone and the hospital still think I am a drug addict finding unusual places to inject. True.

They never quite bought the CIDP story.

Cheers,

Adam

[PalmGuyWC]

All of this sounds so familar, a wrecked back from dragging heavy pots around, spines under the fingernail, Chamaehrops spines in the scalp, punctures, scrapes and wounds.  We have all been there. Like ageing, palm culture is not for sissys. Oh, and did you ever have a Washingtonia frond come crashing down and rip your ear or your arm?  I have.

The worst I've heard:  My next door neighbor was wearing flip flops and she stepped on the base of a P. canariansis frond.  The spine came through the top of her foot!  OUTCH!!!  It makes my skin crawl just to think of it.

Dick

[MattyB]

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

(MattyB @ Jan. 04 2007,12:42)

QUOTE

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

My hero............

[iwan]

It is best not to walk through a Calamus laden jungle with flip flops or any sort of open footware.

[DoomsDave]

Matt from SD:

Now, 'dat was a real-a some-ba'-beech!

dave

[Walter John]

I haven't had any serious injuries but I know of two very bad cases. My brother in law got an infected hand from Phoenix roebeleni and it stayed sore for well over 6 months or more with medication and several doctor visits. The worst case though was a work colleague who on bending down doing weeding, got poked in the eye by a young alex spear. Lost his eyesight for good.

[Zac in NC]

(STEVE IN SO CAL @ Jan. 04 2007,12:51)

QUOTE

(MattyB @ Jan. 04 2007,12:42)

QUOTE

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

My hero............

Mine too. MattyB, your my hero. Sorta like Cameron in Ferris Beuller.

Zac

[BS Man about Palms]

(Zac in NC @ Jan. 04 2007,12:47)

QUOTE

(STEVE IN SO CAL @ Jan. 04 2007,12:51)

QUOTE

(MattyB @ Jan. 04 2007,12:42)

QUOTE

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

My hero............

Mine too. MattyB, your my hero. Sorta like Cameron in Ferris Beuller.

Zac

Matt's avatar must be what he resembles when sittin' on the turlet....

[SunnyFl]

Okay, this isn't anywhere near as bad as what some of you have endured - those stories were even painful to read! yikes.

But I've been sent to the ER twice this year by my beloved palms.  The culprits were D. lutescens and Thrinax morrisii (yeah, the one I'd been coveting for years).

The first time, I was planting my dear lil dypsis and having a bear of a time - and I dunno how it happened but I wrenched my neck so hard I almost passed out.  But I couldn't just leave it half out of the ground so I finished planting it.  Then couldn't move my neck at all and my dear husband took me straight to the ER where I had all kinds of expensive tests and ended up in a cervical collar.  

Next time was a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.  I was fussing with my newest treasure - a Thrinax morrisii! - my very own!.... and a frond hit me right in the eye.  Pain and blurred vision got worse throughout the day - and back to the ER we went.

Scratched cornea.  The Admitting Nurse asked how I'd gotten the scratch.....

"Thrinax morrisii."

"Huh?"

"Don't laugh - a palm frond."

She said, "I'm not laughing - we get palm injuries a lot."

Reading this thread - I believe it

Mean palm.

[STEVE IN SO CAL]

(BS, Man about Palms @ Jan. 04 2007,21:03)

QUOTE

(Zac in NC @ Jan. 04 2007,12:47)

QUOTE

(STEVE IN SO CAL @ Jan. 04 2007,12:51)

QUOTE

(MattyB @ Jan. 04 2007,12:42)

QUOTE

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

My hero............

Mine too. MattyB, your my hero. Sorta like Cameron in Ferris Beuller.

Zac

Matt's avatar must be what he resembles when sittin' on the turlet....

...and Wals new avatar looks like he's just crawled out of a toilet...wuddup wit dat?

[Dave-Vero]

Steve, those nested quotes look like something out of John Barth.

[Walter John]

...and Wals new avatar looks like he's just crawled out of a toilet...wuddup wit dat?

That's me after some severe planting on a very wet day. Nah,  not really, it's a scene from a movie I posted about a few months back. "Kokoda" is the movie. WW2 story on the diggers (Aussie soldiers) on the Kokoda trail in New Guinea, holding back the Japanese. My Dad was there in the real deal.

Bit disturbing do you think ? I'm going to change it soon anyway. I like the idea though of capturing a scene from any dvd movie. I might try and get something from "Castaway" next.

If anyone wants an avatar for themselves from a movie (if I have the movie) I'd be happy to capture something. Let me know. Wish I had Cape Fear, I'd grab one with DeNiro in that hawaiian shirt  

[MattyB]

Wal, what about the ball sack caught in the zipper from There's Something About Mary!

[Jeff Searle]

(MattyB @ Jan. 04 2007,12:42)

QUOTE

Once when I was in Nam (Viet that is), we were hunkered down taking some fire from Charlie and as I rolled over to cover a grenade w/ my body to save our platoon I rolled right into a clump of Salacca.  Spines went into my rectum and I couldn't poop for days without it looking like a playdoh factory.  Needless to say I succsessfully covered the incoming grenade w/ my body and saved all my men.  It was worth it.  True story.

Matt,

  This sounds like the same 4th. grade play I saw many years ago too. When my kids were young.

Jeff

[Zac in NC]

(MattyB @ Jan. 05 2007,12:56)

QUOTE

Wal, what about the ball sack caught in the zipper from There's Something About Mary!

Franks and beans. That has to be one of the most funny movies I have ever seen. The credits are the best, with the Build me up, Buttercup sing-along. Pure comedic genius.

Zac