>Most postings on this topic seem to assume that the putative allergens are >coming from the Alstroemeria. I know absolutely nothing about the >commercial production of Alstroemeria for cut flowers. But as valuable as >that crop is, I'll bet they are sprayed with something somewhere along the >line. Maybe that something (or those somethings) is the source of the >allergens. > >Jim McKenney >jimmckenney@starpower.net >Montgomery County, Maryland zone 7 where the one Alstroemeria long >established in the garden has never bitten me Jim: I've been to producers of alstroemeria and to florists who buy them from me...no treatments at all (other than putting them in vase life solutions. Not all the handlers wore latex gloves...most did not. So I think there is something inherently toxic in the alstros (it's in the literature, too); immunity to that something varies from nil (or acquired) to complete among those who work with them all year-round. Jane McGary's resistance to the toxin in some of the sumacs is perhaps a good indicator to whether one is going to be sensitive to the compound(s) in alstros. I'm no longer as sensitive to poison oak as I was before working with alstros (although I don't test my immunity to poison oak too often). Roy