Kinkaku-ji
"Temple of the Golden Pavillion" in Kyoto, Japan,
one of the most popular tourist attractions in Japan
photo source: Wikipedia


A monk burned down the Temple of the Golden Pavillion in 1950 and it was rebuilt in 1955. "The reconstruction is said to be an exact copy of the original," and the Japanese restored the gold-leaf coating and painted urushiol lacquer on it to preserve and maintain the gold.
sources: Wikipedia


What's Urushiol??? Urushiol oil, the active ingredient in poison ivy, poison oak, (hence the warning, "leaflets three, let it be!!) and poison sumac (7+ leaves), is one of the most potential toxins known.




Interesting tidbits about urushiol from Wikipedia:
Native Americans burned poison oak roots and mixed them with pine nut grease for tatooing. (also read that if you try to get rid of urushiol by burning plants, it's a dangerous task-urushiol takes to the air in a fire and can cause serious lung infections. a wise idea to avoid forest fires, too. )

"The word, urushiol, comes from the Japanese word, urushi, which denotes a lacquer produced from the sap of the kiurishi tree found in East Asia, which is also used to produce traditional Japanese and Chinese lacquerwares."

500 people could react to the amount of a pinhead-sized amount of urushiol, but, not all people will react to urushiol, but, I advise against rolling around in poison ivy, oak, or sumac to see if you will react to it.

A warning to visitors of the Temple of the Golden Pavillion, "Don't try to steal the gold, you might be caught red-handed." literally.

why on earth did i write this?? i had my first contact with urushiol this past weekend while doing yard work-moving cut tree limbs, some with vines. i'm surprised urushiol hasn't been used as nonlethal chemical warfare weapon.

Does that mean you're red-handed? Or just red-faced ?

Plants are the coolest things right after stones. That's why my avatar used to be a (unbearably provocative) mandrake root. Death, dreams and cure, mandrake is all of the above. It's amazing when you think that so many plant compounds are yet to be discovered, and many of the compounds we already know from plants still are left to be studied. That is as much potential pharmacological and industrial applications to be found.

Also I find it very rewarding to be growing plants, and see them evolving.
I had a snake-liana that was so rowdy that I was thinking that someday it would possibly struggle me while I'm sleeping if I wouldn't give her all the fertilizer she wants
That was creazy, that plant was moving around in my bedroom all day long, like a dancing snake, seeking for light.


carnivorous plant (nepenthes). Could eat a mouse. really.


giant flower (rafflesia), it sure looks cool but it stinks


brainy plant (lithops)...with their very superior intelligence, these small things are ruling the world quietly, without us noticing it. I guess.


incense tree (bursera fagaroides), the incense made from the sap smells like bliss


beautiful passion flower (passiflora incarnata has been used as a mood lifting relaxant due to antidepressant alkaloids)


happiness tree (albizia)


strange one (dioscorea).


whatever that is, I love it


mmm, ok, don't start me on plants

super photographs, cascaillou!!! not familiar with the snake-liana, but, sounds a bit frightening. will have to read up on it, though! the last plant is beautiful, love the color!!


lol, modo!! red-chinned looks and feels terrible, too.

**cascaillou, i searched for the snake-liana plant, and google search results were a snake called the liana, and then found it, it's a twisted vine that grows around another plant/tree that searches for light source??

snake-liana is the indian name for the plant I think (teacher plant from mexico).

Great post Gingerkid!
I enjoyed the facts about urushiol and the temple history of course.

Cascaillou,

These are fantastic pictures. I love plants too and think that they are as incredible as gemstones.
The common name of the last flower cluster is "Jade vine", in French Liane de Jade.
The Latin name is "strangyladon macrabatrys". It is part of the Fabaceae papilionacea. (legumineuse)
Some can be of a saturated turquoise blue to blue green rarely seen in nature. The vines are absolutely gorgeous when in bloom.

I think that's how the plants use it. I've had a problem with poison oak since I was a kid and have arrived at two things which work to combat the problem. The first is a product called TechNu which is a soapy stuff that you clean the urushiol off of your skin with. The guy who invented this had originally invented it to remove external particulate materials from nuclear accident victims. If you've ever had a bad case of poison oak then you can relate to feeling like you've been in a nuclear accident. Here's a link to their stuff: http://www.tecnuextreme.com/

The second thing which helps is a home brew concoction that I make which has a CO2 extract of calendula mixed with some carrier oils an emulsifier and water to form a really nice creme which reduces inflammation dramatically. I can't think of a more dangerous plant than poison oak and ivy. I've gotten to where I can spot the stuff from 100 yards away.

Fels Naptha bar soap works, as well. Just don't use it on your face as it's lye-based!

Michael, One has to wonder how you came into contact so often with poison oak that you developed your own cream living in Wenatchee and all? Now, over here on the coast, you can find it fairly often. I am most used to seeing it quite close to saltwater. Growing up in Prosser, I never saw it at all.

thanks for putting a name on the last one lyric. Note that these are pics from the web (not my own pics)



a big favourite: brugmansia. These beautiful huge flowers will emit their wonderful fragrance only at night. Dangerous plant though.

Hubby seconds the TechNu - he broke out head to toe (almost) about 3 years ago after a round with a stray dog that had been rolling in it. Anything that even LOOKS like a start of a rash now gets 'Tech'd'. I grew up near here running the 'woods' so was taught to recognize it when I was a very young child.



We use calamine lotion. Hubby swears he can SMELL the plants half a mile away. He gets it on his arms the worst so I have 2 'sleeves' that he wears on his arms when he gets it now...that way he doesn't spread it all over. His is all from petting the neighborhood dogs which love to run thru it.

wish i knew about tech-nu when i came into contact with the leaflets 3, michael!! love it that you created a concoction to battle the itchies!! i knew it was in the yard, i've mowed the yard with a push mower in shorts and it never bothered me before, but, it got all over my arms and face when we cut down/moved a lot of limbs and small trees that were covered in it. at first, i thought i must have been attacked by fire ants. squeaky, i learned the hard way like your hubby to wear sleeves and gloves from now on!!

that's a beautiful plant, too, cascaillou!! and dangerous

hi lyric!! what amazed me about the urushiol on the temple, is that they used it to "maintain and preserve" the gold-leaf, although it could be used to keep thieves away. great product for keeping thieves out of your valuables!!

You are welcome for the name Cascaillou.
I am from the French West Indies and I grew up with this plant in my parents' garden.
Thank you for your new post of brugmansia flowers.

Hi, Ginger,

Urushiol is poisonous to the touch when wet. But it is totally safe after dried. Urushi lacquerware (urushi-nuri) is a common and traditional food container (soup bowls, lunch boxes, and so on) in Japan. Those well hand-crafted pieces are very beautiful and expensive.

Here is some info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_lacquerware If you click 日本語 under the languages on the left column, you can see some examples. The writing is Japanese, though.
http://www.stutler.cc/pens/wajima/urushi.html

By the way, I think Kinkaku-ji is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. They did not intend to poison people, but used the urushi lacquer technique on the building for the beauty. The urushi coating doesn’t work that way even if they wished.

P.S.
My urushi-nuri soup bowl

(No, it’s a plastic imitation. The real thing is too expensive!)

"Aster novae-angliae is deployed in decoction internally, with a strong decoction externally, in many eruptive diseases of the skin; it removes also the poisonous state of the skin caused by Rhus or Shumach."

I was researching this plant - for something else - and came across it as a use for treatment of poison ivy and sumac! New England Aster - the ones that bloom in the fall with a lavender flower with yellow center.