Hello Shell folk,

I'm leaving for Austin on Saturday, wiggling and wangling my schedule so that
I can peek in on the COA convention on Thursday and Friday. I'm sure it will
be educational.

In a few weeks I leave on my Bahamian vacation. I've started to assemble
collection gear and vials and boxes and bug dope and what all. If they open
my bags at customs, I don't know what they'll think.

Reading up for the trip I keep coming across references to poison bush and
I'm confused.

Is poison bush the same as poison wood and coral sumac? Are they both
Metopium toxiferum? What about this manchineel or death apple, "Hippomane
manicella". Or is it all the same stuff?

I've read graphic descriptions of the effects of contact with these plants
and they make poison ivy, Rhus radicans, sound benign in comparison. I've
studied the photos carefully so as not to blunder into a bush. But the only
pictures I've seen are of leaves, and the plants get to 30 feet tall. Do they
have a central trunk or a bushy growth habit?

I remember a Bahamian pointing out a vine called monkey tamarind that she
said gave an itchy rash. That one I would recognize.

Do any of you seasoned collectors have experience with these plants and
advice to offer? I know this isn't quite as on topic as, say, "How do you
pick up a cone witthout getting stung?" but these plants grow on the beach
and near mangroves and other mollusk habitats. A serious rash could certainly
put a damper on a collecting trip.

Thanks,
Ellen Bulger