HIGHLY poisonous plant alert to traveling fishers and campers

[fishryc]

Hey all
This is the time of year when we are all traveling to our favorite fishing / camping areas with our friends and family. Wanted to alert all about an increasingly common and HIGHLY noxious / toxic alien plant species that many of you have probably seen already. Especially those with children should be alert because this plant is especially alluring to children as a plaything do to it’s size (up to 8 –10 feet) and with it’s thick, hollow straight stem which is like a play sword to kids. The plant is called the Giant Hogweed. I just saw a small grove today at a North Tonawanda roadside. I’m sorry I’m not techno-savy enough to insert an information link, but do a Google on “hogweed info” and there’s plenty out there. This is a really, really, really nasty plant. Imagine poison ivy X 100. What this sneaky beastie does is poison your skin in one of  two ways- 1) it’s sap from broken leaves and stems gets onto you, or 2) it has micro hairs that penetrate the skin upon contact. Unlike poison ivy where you develop blisters / rash a day later, hogweed poisoning shows no immediate symptoms. That’s because the poisonous chemicals in the sap are photochemically reactive. That is, you will develop severe blisters upon exposure of the infected area to sunlight. The effects are permanent and will often leave permanent severe black scars on your skin. Unbelievably nasty plant. Native to Europe, it was brought here many years ago as an ornamental garden plant. Anyway, whether you’re traveling or not, look it up, familiarize yourself and kids with it, and beware because ther'es a good chance that it's already in your own neck of the woods. Appearance wise, it looks like Queen Annes Lace, (that highly common roadside weed with the round white crowns of flowers), only on a prehistorically massive scale. Truly unmistakable if encountered.
 Fishryc

[Hood]

Thanksfor the heads up ryc...I have definately seen that but am not sure where. That big flowery cauliflower looking head is very familiar.

[Chucker]

I've heard of a fair amount of it out towards Marion and Wolcott, too.  A pic for everyone -

[MikeVT]

Pretty sure I've seen it along the Battenkill, I thought it was a large form of poison parsnip.  Maybe it is the same plant that I know by a different name.  I do know poison parsnip works the same way, it reacts with sunlight to form blisters.

[butterworm]

yeah. we have it here in the southern tier. there was big write up in the olean times hearald last yr.

[fishryc]

Pretty sure I've seen it along the Battenkill, I thought it was a large form of poison parsnip.  Maybe it is the same plant that I know by a different name.  I do know poison parsnip works the same way, it reacts with sunlight to form blisters.

Wild or poison parsnip is not the same plant , but similar in appearance and identical in noxious effects (photosensitive reactions) as hogweed. Appearance is much more “scrawny” or “scraggly” with very limited foliage on the stems as compared to the large, lush leaves of the hogweed. Flower crowns are very sparse also, as opposed to the dense clusters of hogweed. Give wild or poison parsnip the same avoidance and respect as hogweed, it’s equally nasty.