Giant Hogweed Alert
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- July
- 18
Yikes — There’s a new toxic invasive plant on the run. Really toxic.
My colleague Mike Risinit has a great story in the paper about giant hogweed. Here’s a link to the article.
And here are some photos by our Stuart Bayer of a giant hogwwed plant at the intersection of Mahopac-Croton Falls Road and Stebbins Road in Mahopac.
According to Mike,
Giant hogweed looks like “Queen Anne’s Lace on steroids,” according to one government warning.
Contact with its sap and then exposure to sunlight can result in burn-like lesions, massive blisters and skin discoloration. Very sensitive people can require hospitalization, and the effects can recur. And even tiny amounts of sap in the eyes can result in temporary or permanent blindness, according to state and federal advisories.
…
Most of the 324 confirmed sites are in western New York and the Finger Lakes region. There are some plants pinpointed between Oswego and the western edge of the Adirondack Park.
Putnam and Nassau counties harbor the only known locations in the eastern part of the state, the the Invasive Plant Council of New York State says.
“This stuff is incredibly survivalist,” said Dianne Olsen, an environmental horticulture educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County. “What we’re trying to do is to get people to recognize it. This is a big problem plant.”
Giant hogweed can be found in 11 other states, including Connecticut …
As you can see from this photo by Stuart, it really does look like Queen Anne’s lace.
I’ve never seen it in the wild. Have you?
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, July 18th, 2007 at 3:58 pm by Bill Cary.
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Bill Cary grew up in Louisville, Ky. His gardening was limited to growing parsley and impatiens on the windowsill of Manhattan walkups until the mid-1990s when he bought a rundown old chicken farm on 8 acres in the Hudson Valley. Now he spends his weekends chasing deer, hacking away at invasive shrubs and vines and wondering why he doesn`t have more meadow and less lawn.
