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Return Of The Giant Hogweed

I remember seeing some of these plants back in the 70s, when my family were visiting various stately homes. My Dad warned me away from the plants and mentioned the sunlight thing. I thought it was complete fiction. Now I know it's really nasty stuff. :shock:
 
I also remember scares from previous years. It was foretold at one time that these monstrous things were spreading down railway routes - which is probably as close as I have got personally. They are gigantic and statuesque, which tends to make them stand out from the usual hemlocks and cow-parsley of the UK.

I am slighlty puzzled as to how this fellow got such a dose of the sap by casually stepping on a stalk. It is mentioned that his wife fancied one for the garden but perhaps the full nature of the encounter was not explained for fear of wild-flower legislation?

What I do recall from earlier scares is that the main danger was to children who found the hollow stems and used them as blow-pipes. That does sound very yesteryear! They got nasty burns to the mouth, developed by sunlight as described.

Certain plants fill me with a kind of sick dread, even if they are harmless. This one seems to stay horrid even when Frankenstein and the Daleks etc. have lost their power to keep me awake! :shock:

edit: "with" not "will" in last paragraph!

edit2: missing letter in "developed" spotted and fixed.
 
I remember playing in fields where this stuff grew - glad I stuck to making my "crowns" from daisys!
 
I thought this particular alien plant panic had faded away. I remember the stories back in the 70's.

Perhaps someone should plant a garden with Giant Hogweed and Japanese Knotweed - then FIGHT! (You could have a Leylandii hedge to contain them.)
 
That sounds a lot like the effects of garlic-mustard sap.

We've got a 'ell of a problem with that stuff here in Wisconsin. It's invasive and spreading like, well, wild fire.

Nasty stuff, that.
 
They grew all along the river beside the house I grew up in. We were always warned to steer well clear of them. My dad and the resident's association used to cut them back down every few years and try to clear the wasteground round our houses.

Used to get awful blisters because he would insist on wearing a t-shirt when doing it... :roll:
 
Anyone read that book/seen that film The Ruins? Now I'm wondering if it was based on fact.
 
A close-encounter, then! I can well believe that hacking them down would produce a nasty sprinkle of caustic sap.

But would just stepping on a stem result in the injuries shown in the original story?
:?:
 
JamesWhitehead said:
A close-encounter, then! I can well believe that hacking them down would produce a nasty sprinkle of caustic sap.

But would just stepping on a stem result in the injuries shown in the original story?
:?:
Click to expand...

Yes, I wondered that myself. Maybe, like wasp stings, some people react more dramatically than others.
 
Pietro_Mercurios said:
gncxx said:
Anyone read that book/seen that film The Ruins? Now I'm wondering if it was based on fact.
Click to expand...
Had to look that one up. However, it did put me suspiciously in mind of a particularly unpleasant tale by the horror fantasy writer, Clark Ashton Smith.
Click to expand...

Funnily enough it was another Smith, Scott Smith, who wrote The Ruins. The film's fine, but the book is fantastically bleak in spite of the B-movie premise.
 
Here we go again...
Giant hogweed warning after children hurt in Bolton
From the section Manchester

Parents have been urged to watch out for harmful weeds after two boys were hospitalised in Bolton.
Reid Daley, 13, and a friend touched giant hogweed at Moses Gate Country Park, Farnworth on Saturday while playing.

Toxic sap from the weed, which grows near canals and rivers, can increase the sensitivity of the skin to sunlight, often leading to burns.
Bolton Council said the weed had since been removed from the park.

Reid and three friends found a patch of the plants and started to play amongst them. He woke up the following day with rashes to his skin and was taken to hospital.
He said: "They started to blister up as I was in the sunlight.
"I was in agony, every time I moved or touched something with it it was like someone was poking me with a needle. It just wouldn't stop."

After contact, the burns can last for several months and the skin can remain sensitive to light for many years.
The plant, which resembles cow parsley, can grow about 16ft (5m) high and has leaves up to 5ft (1.5m) wide.
It can be identified by its reddish-purple stem with fine spines, and its spotted leaf stalks.

Mathew Cocklin, Reid's stepfather, said: "I couldn't believe we didn't know about it; most people don't know about it.
"It's just a weed. You are not expecting it to cause severe damage."
The weed originated in the Caucasus mountains and was introduced into Britain by Victorian plant collectors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-33474810

Wth pics: more info:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_hogweed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33476545
 
"It's just a weed. You are not expecting it to cause severe damage."

Is it motile like Triffids?
 
davidplankton said:
Something that fights the insect that fights Japanese Knotweed expected to be released soon.
Click to expand...

godzilla-rodan-mothra-ghidorah.jpg
 
He was always acting like he was on the bad acid, then he had a bad accident - if that's what you mean?
 
Is OWB getting mixed up with the Giant Grotbags?
 
rynner2 said:
Here we go again...
Giant hogweed warning after children hurt in Bolton
From the section Manchester

Parents have been urged to watch out for harmful weeds after two boys were hospitalised in Bolton.
Reid Daley, 13, and a friend touched giant hogweed at Moses Gate Country Park, Farnworth on Saturday while playing.

Toxic sap from the weed, which grows near canals and rivers, can increase the sensitivity of the skin to sunlight, often leading to burns.
Bolton Council said the weed had since been removed from the park.

Reid and three friends found a patch of the plants and started to play amongst them. He woke up the following day with rashes to his skin and was taken to hospital.
He said: "They started to blister up as I was in the sunlight.
"I was in agony, every time I moved or touched something with it it was like someone was poking me with a needle. It just wouldn't stop."

After contact, the burns can last for several months and the skin can remain sensitive to light for many years.
The plant, which resembles cow parsley, can grow about 16ft (5m) high and has leaves up to 5ft (1.5m) wide.
It can be identified by its reddish-purple stem with fine spines, and its spotted leaf stalks.

Mathew Cocklin, Reid's stepfather, said: "I couldn't believe we didn't know about it; most people don't know about it.
"It's just a weed. You are not expecting it to cause severe damage."
The weed originated in the Caucasus mountains and was introduced into Britain by Victorian plant collectors.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-33474810

Wth pics: more info:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_hogweed
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33476545
Click to expand...


I made a mental note of the possible return of the Giant Hogweed last Saturday, when I passed a typically horrid, if statuesque, specimen by the side of the M60 - I was preparing to exit onto the A666* for Bolton. This is two or three miles from Moses Gate, I guess, as the seeds fly. To be accurate - should there be teams with flamethrowers at the ready - this triffid was just before the Swinton exit, a mile or so before the M61 & A666 exit.

Was this another Bolton story that surfaced in the Falmouth paper, ryn?

*I'm sure I posted long ago about the day I glanced at the display on my car when it registered 66666.66 miles on the A666. Always sounds like the Devil's Highway to me.

edit: Blimey! Those burns are nasty on the bbc site photos! Casually brushing against the things when clothed wouldn't produce much sap, would it? Are the plants getting more lethal? Are kids getting more sensitive? Or could they have been beating each other with the hollow stems? :confused:
 
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