Leafless stinging plant - very hazzardous

[Caligirl339]

I was helping my mother cut this rather large leafless tree down and neither of us used work gloves. When I went inside the house to wash my hands I noticed the rather odd texture it left on my hands. About an hour later I washed my hands again & went to put on my contacts but they began to sting so bad. I held my eyes under the spout of the faucet and let the water rinse off my burning eyeballs. Finally abour half an hour of pain the stinging subsided. Any one know what this stinging plant is???!
These pictures are of it's cuttings.

[applestar]

I have this one -- it's a member of euphorbia with common name of "Pencil Cactus". I got a cutting from our dentist's office without knowing anything about it and found out here --

Subject: Pencil Cactus propagated from cuttings -- any tips?

applestar, I just found some information about it.

It's a kind of Euphorbia, not a cactus. Their sap is a kind of latex that can seriously irritate skin, eyes and insides so, every effort should be made not to get any on or in, any part of yourself. I even found another website with someone talking about losing their sight, because they accidentally got some in their eye!

This link has a care guide for them https://houseplants.about.com/od/succule ... Cactus.htm It's not the site that I mentioned above.

I still have mine and it has grown quite a bit, but I'm very careful not to get the sap on me.

I hope your eyes are feeling better. Good thing you rinsed them right away.

[Caligirl339]

Yes, my eyes were back to normal after about a week. I couldn't attempt to put in my contacts without it stinging. Luckily a week later I put in a new pair of disposable contacts. By the way, the day this incident happened my mother had stinging eyes later that afternoon too!