Compresses soaked in an aluminum acetate mixture - available at pharmacies - can provide relief for skin irritations. If hogweed sap gets into the eye, rinse them with water immediately and put on sunglasses. If you live near giant hogweed you can mow or weed-whack the plant before you touch it to prevent future exposure, right? Think again. That will just send up new growth and potentially expose you to toxic sap.
Call a professional or local authorities who can properly destroy the plant and its seeds. These seeds, originally green, turn brown as they dry and can be spread by animals, surface runoff of rain, or on the wind, establishing new colonies.
Seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 10 years. The plant may grow to 15 to 20 feet in height. As mentioned earlier, there are several plants in New York and the Northeast that can be mistaken for giant hogweed. Key features for distinguishing these plants from giant hogweed are explained below.
Click the identification tables to enlarge. Giant hogweed may grow to 15 to 20 feet in height. Stems are 1 to 3 inches in diameter, but may reach 4 inches. Stems are marked with dark purplish blotches and raised nodules. Leaf stalks are spotted, hollow, and covered with sturdy bristles most prominent at the base of the stalk. Stems are also covered with hairs but not as prominently as the leaf stalks. Leaves are compound, lobed, and deeply incised; can reach up to 5 feet in width.
Numerous white flowers form a flat-topped, umbrella-shaped head up to two and a half feet across. Native Cow parsnip, while resembling giant hogweed, grows to only five to eight feet tall.
The deeply ridged stems can be green or slightly purple, do not exhibit the dark purplish blotches and raised nodules of hogweed, and only reach one to two inches in diameter, contrasted with hogweed stems which can reach three to four inches in diameter.
Where giant hogweed has coarse bristly hairs on its stems and stalks, cow parsnip is covered with finer hairs that give the plant a fuzzy appearance. Both sides of the leaves exhibit these hairs but they are predominantly on the underside of the leaves.
Native purple-stemmed Angelica is more easily differentiated from giant hogweed by its smooth, waxy green to purple stems no bristles, no nodules , and its softball-sized clusters of greenish-white or white flowers, seldom reaching a foot across. As with cow parsnip, Angelica is much shorter than giant hogweed, usually no more than eight feet tall.
Angelica leaves are comprised of many small leaflets and seldom reach more than two feet across. Poison hemlock, a non-native biennial, is also shorter than giant hogweed, growing to only four to nine feet in height. While the stem has some purple blotches, it is waxy and the entire plant stems, stalks, leaves is smooth and hairless. The leaves are dramatically different from those of hogweed, being fernlike and a bright, almost glossy, green.
Other plants that look similar are also shown. Photograph: Photos are needed to confirm identification.
Take high resolution photos of the entire plant, stem, leaves, flowers and seeds, making sure to keep a safe distance. Examples below:. Provide photos, detailed directions to the plant infestation GPS coordinates and street address a plus and estimate the number of plants. From late April through August, DEC field crews visit each confirmed giant hogweed site, and use the appropriate control method.
This is free of charge to the landowner. Sites are visited each year until the plants are eradicated. When no more plants are found the site will be monitored for three subsequent years.
It has thick hollow stems and large lobed leaves. The stems are covered with reddish-purple flecks and stiff hairs filled with sap. Seeds may take several years to grow and can live in the soil for up to 15 years.
Giant hogweed flowers once in its lifetime, unless the flower clusters are damaged before opening. Once the plant produces seeds it dies. Each plant can produce up to , winged seeds typically 50, Seeds can be spread up to 10 metres by the wind. Giant hogweed has the potential to spread readily and grows along roadsides, ditches and streams.
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