|
Roger Batt uses a shovel to dig up a large Poison Hemlock plant to look at the root. As Bryan Dallolio kneels down to shake the dirt off the root, Roger cautions him to make sure he washes his hands afterwards. Bryan holds the root up and notes that this is a tap rooted plant and in many instances the poisons are concentrated in this root area. When the plant is this mature and has a developed root like this it is not so dangerous, but when the plant is younger and the root has a lot more fluids stored in the root system, it is a prime time for horses and mules to inadvertently pluck the whole plant while they are grazing. They can get a whole mouthful of the toxic root this way. Bryan pulls up a very small plant and root that was mixed in with other grasses to show how easy it would be for a horse or other grazing animal to get one of these plants in its mouth. He uses his knife to cut the small tender root and points out that you can see the glistening liquid sap that contains the poisonous alkaloids that makes this noxious weed such a problem.
Back to Panorama
|
|
