NFR Thorns

[Jiminsandiego]

I was cutting a Chanterelle mushroom out of the "moss" near Baker Lake a few weeks ago and got "stuck"..two thorns in two fingers. I did not give it a second thought at the time. Well.. after several attempts to dig em out, they are still bugging the heck out of me. Decades of roaming the backcountry of the Southwest has had me in many, many encounters with thorns of every type ( such as Jumping Cactus and Spanish Daggers etc..) but I'm here to tell you, these dang, tiny thorns, from a small obscure "vine" are as bad (or worse) then any of them. I don't think it was Stringing Nettles (been there done that) nor Devil's Club (thorn is tiny/ invisible). I'm hoping that some of you folks might know what this plant might be. Thanks for any input, Jim.

 

[MGTom]

I've gotten tiny thorns in that area from bush-whacking through the thimble berries.

 

[Jonnytutu]

Devil's club would be the ones that stay and often worm their way deeper. Have seen whole hands swell up and become mostly useless. Bad business is the club (too many years tree planting).

Fin

 

[Greg Armstrong]

Nootka Rose possibly. They have micro thorns that can fester pretty good.

 

[Jim Darden]

tell me the lat/long of where you got stuck and I will go up and look at the plants in the area.....

 

[Jim Travers]

Hit a cactus pokin round in the desert vicinities down utah way couple weeks back thorn still in me hate thorns!!!

 

[Driftless Dan]

Devil's club would be the ones that stay and often worm their way deeper. Have seen whole hands swell up and become mostly useless. Bad business is the club (too many years tree planting).

Fin

A friend of mine was a guide in SW Washington for a while. Once, he took a woman on a float trip, fishing for trout. At some point, she told him, "I need a bathroom." He explained that in fact, the Gifford Pinchot forest didn't have outhouses every few feet and that he would beach the boat, look the other way, and let her go nearby. She decided to go into the bushes.

He's staring out into the river and he hears a scream. He runs to the woman. Apparently, she had trod down a devils club as she squatted down, but when her feet shifted, the devil's club sprang back up, hitting her - and leaving lots of thorns - in that most tender of spots. He gave her the tweezers from his Swiss Army Knife, and went back to the boat to allow her some privacy to remove the offending thorns. After a while, she came down to the boat.

Back in the boat and fishing, he could tell she was still very uncomfortable. She hadn't gotten all the thorns. Eventually, they had to pull to the side of the river again and he was directed to search for the thorns that she'd missed. He counted it as one of the most embarrassing moments of his life.

 

[Mark Walker]

Many years ago, I went fall camping in Algonquin Park, Ontario, Canada
with a girlfriend (Marigold)and and a friend of hers(Julie).
Her friend was a totally useless ditz in the forest. Couldn't paddle a canoe, talked constantly and always stomped around the fire while cooking getting all kinds of dust/debris in the food.

One very chilly morning, I noticed her friend waist deep in the lake and my girlfriend laughing to herself.
Apparently her friend had gone off to relieve herself and while her drawers were down, she sat on a large glob of pine resin.
She was in the lake trying to scrub it off with a handful of sand.
Needless to say, she was not a very "happy camper' the remainder of the outing.

After that, I always called her, "Sandy".

 

[Jiminsandiego]

I truly appreciate the humor (and info) generated from this thread. In the SW every plant in the back country wants to stick you or hurt you in some way. Growing up as a kid in Maryland the "woods" were soft, and barefoot was the norm. So now I find myself in the PNW... And, again, the "woods" feel soft. I do not miss the cactus. However.. I've learned that we have some rather nasty plants around here. The Hog Weed / Carrot plants are indeed horrifying. Add to that my new found respect for the tiny thorns hiding amongst the soft moss. Poison ivy and poison sumac, apparently , are also invited to the party.....It appears to me that some plants living in the "soft woods" of the PNW demand a healthy dose of respect. I like that.