Lanny Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 If you are in Northern Virginia, hopefully you will not see this plant where you live or go. If you do, stay away. It can cause burns and permanent blindness. http://www.foxnews.com/health/2018/06/17/invasive-plant-that-causes-3rd-degree-burns-permanent-blindness-discovered-in-virginia.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanin Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Yikes! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 Heads up- it is in multiple states in the northeast. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VaKim Posted June 17, 2018 Share Posted June 17, 2018 I saw this. Looks so much like Queen Anne's lace, which we have a lot of around here. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Knew it was gonna be hogweed. That features in a book I read as a kid about a witch. For years I assumed it was made up to fit the setting and also provide a clue to the ending, but then I found out it was real and was utterly horrified. Can you believe it got here as an ornamental? Why anybody would think that was a good idea, I don't know. And yes, it's in the same family as Queen Anne's Lace, also carrots, parsley, cilantro, celery, fennel, angelica.... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selkie Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 It looks a lot like the cow parsnip and poison hemlock that we have here in Illinois. Cow parsnip gets pretty tall (maybe 8-10'), but it looks like the hogweed gets even taller than that and has bigger leaves. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewellsmommy Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 EEK! We are not in NoVa, but we are in the tidewater/coastal area. So, we will be on the look out in coming seasons for spreading. It doesn't help that I'm plant blind. I can't tell one plant from another hardly. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 I saw this last night, as I was up with a burning, horrible, unrelenting itch from what we think is poison ivy on my foot. Seeing that article about hogweed made it so much worse! (posting from inside a vat of anti-itch cream) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewellsmommy Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 1 minute ago, Spryte said: I saw this last night, as I was up with a burning, horrible, unrelenting itch from what we think is poison ivy on my foot. Seeing that article about hogweed made it so much worse! (posting from inside a vat of anti-itch cream) i hate itchy plants! The last time we had to walk through a wooded area,i told dh to stay away from a plant i saw with 3 leaves. I told him it was poison ivy. Then a few minutes later i told him to stay away from a different plant that i also said was poison ivy. He then calls out my plant id-ing abilities because they were totally different plants. I told him I don't care, assume they are ALL poison ivy! That is my method and it has served me well. Neither of us got a rash, but I did get 2 different ticks!! It seems like nature is always out to get us. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 6 minutes ago, jewellsmommy said: i hate itchy plants! The last time we had to walk through a wooded area,i told dh to stay away from a plant i saw with 3 leaves. I told him it was poison ivy. Then a few minutes later i told him to stay away from a different plant that i also said was poison ivy. He then calls out my plant id-ing abilities because they were totally different plants. I told him I don't care, assume they are ALL poison ivy! That is my method and it has served me well. Neither of us got a rash, but I did get 2 different ticks!! It seems like nature is always out to get us. Ha! Yes. I’m starting to feel like Melman from the movie Madagascar ... “Nature! Get it off me!” Poison ivy is tricky - I was just reading that it can look wildly different from plant to plant, and can even mimic the look of other plants. I vote that you have stellar plant identifying skills. ... and don’t even get me started on ticks! (Shudder) ETA: my particular brush with poison ivy is my first ever. And it happens to be on my foot that also has a broken toe! In the one part not covered by the lovely broken toe shoe. Yikes! You gotta laugh sometimes. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewellsmommy Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Just now, Spryte said: Ha! Yes. I’m starting to feel like Melman from the movie Madagascar ... “Nature! Get it off me!” Poison ivy is tricky - I was just reading that it can look wildly different from plant to plant, and can even mimic the look of other plants. I vote that you have stellar plant identifying skills. ... and don’t even get me started on ticks! (Shudder) Thank you! I will be sure to tell me my dh that, once again, I was right. ? ...to the sneaky shape shifting ivy: "I'm on to your games!" ? Hope you feel better soon. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 I love Melman. He may be my spirit animal. I pulled the first tick of the year off my son last night, after he rolled around in grass near woods. Where is that old emoticon with the person running wildly in circles, freaking out? But I held it together, so he wasn't too scared. Thanks for the info about that plant. Freaky stuff! We apparently have it here in Germany. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanaqui Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Poison ivy not only has three leaves BUT ALSO a hairy vine. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 Found it! Here’s the poison ivy article I read recently with tips to ID its many shapes and forms. It had some new (to me) info: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/08/616595496/dont-touch-a-scientist-s-advice-for-spotting-poison-ivy-before-it-ruins-your-sum Now we have to learn to ID hogweed, too, here in No VA. Yuck. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 2 hours ago, elroisees said: Thanks for the info about that plant. Freaky stuff! We apparently have it here in Germany. it's the same plant as Riesen-Baerenklau, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 22 minutes ago, regentrude said: it's the same plant as Riesen-Baerenklau, right? Yes, according to Google. I don't know where it's originally from; Wikipedia, that font of cool summaries ? , says it was imported to Britain several decades ago as an ornamental, was cultivated by Russians as cow feed (really???) and became invasive. It's one of the few natural threats we were warned about when we move to this area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted June 18, 2018 Share Posted June 18, 2018 9 minutes ago, elroisees said: Yes, according to Google. I don't know where it's originally from; Wikipedia, that font of cool summaries ? , says it was imported to Britain several decades ago as an ornamental, was cultivated by Russians as cow feed (really???) and became invasive. It's one of the few natural threats we were warned about when we move to this area. According to wikipedia, it is native to the Caucasus region ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El... Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 Gotta resurrect this thread and say thank you, Lanny, for inspiring me to learn about this weed! We came across what is either hogweed or cow parsnip on our walk yesterday. We're in Germany. It was on the edge of a farmer's field, and about 6 feet tall. It had purple at the joints, and hairy spines all over it. I took some photos, and in the interest of science, I may need to go back out there with tongs to get some seeds to analyze... seems risky, though. Here are photos, and the link that I'm trying to use to determine what we saw! It's been very dry here, and a lot of plants are dry. The weed was quite dry, and going to seed. It was in a perimeter that was probably mowed last fall. http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/72766.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 I just saw this on the news where a 17-year-old boy came into contact with it while working. https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/health/giant-hogweed-burns-teen/index.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spryte Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 2 minutes ago, Junie said: I just saw this on the news where a 17-year-old boy came into contact with it while working. https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/13/health/giant-hogweed-burns-teen/index.html I saw this this morning, too, in our local news, and wanted to thank Lanny for the heads up. It’s officially in my area, where my kids could come in contact with it. Yikes. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 14, 2018 Share Posted July 14, 2018 Good grief. I had enough of an issue with poison ivy. And that flower looks exactly like Queen Anne’s Lace and I would never dream it was a different plant with a bad effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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