I photographed a Giant Hogweed today. Heracleum mantegazzianum
Oh, am I lucky I did not touch it. You see it is a very attractive plant, and I had just heard a little about it, enough to be suspicious . The plants are just so beautiful that anyone might go over and touch one. Later this same day, it's all over the Prime Time Montreal TV News. What a weird coincidence I thought.
The plant is formidable. The one I found stands almost 8 feet tall with a Queen Anne's Lace type flower. Mind you these plants were in an ideal location beside a swampy stream, usually they might only be waist high.
Beware of this plant.......In the sunlight it secretes sap that will cause blindness if gotten in the eye or cause welts that leave scars on the skin. I found a group of ten in Val David an hour north of Montreal. It seems to be spreading everywhere and has a lot of seeds as well. Originally it was brought to Canada as a decorative garden plant and now has become a wildly spread scourge.
Apparently one plant can shed over 50,000 seeds. The plant can grow up to twenty feet tall. I have read the name comes from the word Hercules . It is a relative of wild Carrot and wild Parsnip. Poison hemlock also figures in it's family of similar toxic plants.
This flowering head stand almost 8 feet tall and has a flowerhead of about 13 inches across. They grow in many clusters and look truly foreign. They have a hollow stalk. With large fingered leaves. The seeds can survive for several years before they regrow again. So for all of you who thought you had a marvelous green thumb because they grow so well think twice or thrice.
If you spot any please do report it. This is not a plant that we do not want on the landscape. Can you imagine that ?
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Comments
I agree with grif. Your second photo is particularly gorgeous.
indeed.
Beautiful.
One of my neighbors has been a one-woman fury against the stuff, pulling it in longsleeves and pants. As a result, it's almost gone on our section of street, and the indigenous wildflowers have come back.
Keep up the good fight!
Procopius, my late uncle Stanley, a geologist, was on a field trip with a bunch of students, and they had stopped to eat their packed lunches along an English hedgerow. On the other side of the hedgerow, along the road, was a clump of giant hogweed, including one massive specimen. Two elderly local men came by on their walk and he heard one say "Aaar George, what d'you reckon that be?" His buddy replied "I tell 'ee straight, I think it's a triffid!" This was just a few years after Wyndham's book came out.
Hope it cannot grow in Florida.
Every other invasive plant can.
It sounds even worse than the bull thistles we are battling on a section of our bike trail. Those suckers grow to 8 feet tall here, and the spines are so fierce that I need to wear double gloves (substantial leather, with a wool glove liner) to handle them.
FunsunA, I found out the plant can be twenty feet tall.Thanks
Susan M, Thanks for the comment. Never touch a Hogweed esp in the sun the substance it releases is photosensitive. If you get it on you do not let sunlight on the contaminated spot.
Scarlett, Report all Hogweeds Immediately. Appaenrtly in Michigan it's a full scale war against this plant.
Kit, The beauty of the plant makes it very attractive. I think I saw a dead butterfly on one.
Mumbletypeg: Wild parsnip ,who would have guessed this.
Frank, Thanks for the link
Fingerlakes: I am sure it must be very troublesome over there.
Procopius, Thanks for the triffids post. Yeah that sounds ugly too.
Boomer, Thanks and yes they are attractive.
Susan ,,Thanks
J, I think all playing children would want to play around these formidable weeds.
Sheba, Thanks
Linda, Thanks
David, very interesting approach
Wordsmith, I found a group of 10 just outside Val David.
kh333, Thanks
Leah, Very scary,I have seen photos of people with the rash and it's horrible.
Fetlock, I thought giant dill as well now what is Kudzu ?
Anne, Thanks and resilient is OK
Bee Gee, Thats a good story i think.
Mission, In Florida it would be a nightmare.
Thanks again to all who helped irradicate this weed with your fine words and support.