A Nasty Little Weed

We just happen to have the most nastiest little weed that grows in our back yard. I have no idea what it is called, but what I do know are the effect of it when it is touched. 

  

When this weed is alive the stalks are red like the one in the picture above and the pokey things are green, like the one in the picture below. When the weed dies everything turns a light brown color.

 

The plant its self is about two and a half feet tall and it has little leaves at the base of it.

One day, a couple of months ago, my husband and the children were in our backyard  trying to conquer the weeds that were growing in abundance.  All of the sudden Autumn started screaming and rubbing one of her eyes and saying owie!!! We thought maybe some sand got into her eye but as I watched it the area around her eye was getting swollen and red and her tear ducts were going crazy; sending out tears to wash out whatever was in her eye.  After about an hour her tear ducts calmed down and she was back to playing but the area around her eye was still swollen. As a mother I know that sand does not cause the skin around the eye to swell so I was puzzled as to what it was that had gotten into her eye. 

When my husband was cleaning up the leftover dried up weeds that were in our garden in October, his hands started itching and swelling, just as the skin around Autumn's eye had done. The only weed that was in our garden was this nasty little weed. I cannot imagine getting ,whatever causes the itching from this plant, in my eye. So from now on everyone has learned to stay away from this plant and to never let it touch your skin and especially your eyes.