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CAPITAL REGION
Beware the giant hogweed Improperly handled, invasive plant leads to burns, blindness
BY KATHY PARKER Gazette Reporter

Any family, no matter how deeply rooted in the region, can have some troublesome members.
Take the carrot family: down-toearth, basic, good citizens.
But their shirttail relatives, giant hogweed and wild parsnip, are bad news. That pair can cause second-degree skin burns and blindness and they’re on the loose.
Horticulture experts say use extreme caution: both can cause the skin to lose it’s protection against the sun. The result, if oils from the plant are not removed, are blisters that appear 24 to 48 hours after exposure.
Karen Lee of the Hudson Valley Poison Education Center in Sleepy Hollow said treatment should begin immediately after exposure.
    “If sap gets into the eyes, the result is likely to be irreversible blindness,” she said.
    She said anyone handling the plant should wear disposable gloves, long pants and sleeves and protective eye wear.
    “If the sap gets on the skin, the area should be cleansed with rubbing alcohol to remove the sticky residue and then washed with soap and water,” she said. “Even after washing it away, you should cover that part of your body and seek medical treatment.”
    Jerry Carlson, a research scientist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, said the two plants were seen in large numbers west of Herkimer County last year, but were not found in the Capital District.
    “Now the plants are pretty much everywhere,” he said Monday. “We had hoped not to see numbers above 600 or 1,000, but we have reports of more than 2,000 plants in every county but Franklin.”
    “They’re hard to miss, especially the giant hogweed,” he said. “Those plants grow 12 to 15 feet high.”
    Wild parsnip plants reach 5 feet tall. Both have large leaves and light colored flowers resembling Queen Anne’s lace, which is a harmless relative.
    The parsnip has clusters of yellowish-green flowers and a hairless green stem with vertical grooves. The giant hogweed has clusters of white flowers and coarse white hairs on the stem as well as purple blotches.
    Carlson said the plants were brought to the U.S. from Europe as ornamental garden flowers.
    “In India and throughout the Middle East, the seeds of the fruits of the plants are used as a spice,” he said.
    Chris LaPointe of Gansevoort Road in Northumberland said she didn’t know the large plants growing in her front yard were wild parsnips. She also didn’t know the potential danger.
    “I thought there were goldenrod,” she said Monday. “My husband and I both have allergies and we’ve been really bothered the past three weeks and wondering what had bloomed that was bothering us.”
    She said her husband was planning to attack the plants with a weed whacker.
    Carlson warned against any cutting into the plants that could result in exposure to the sap, but he said the flowers of the plants should be removed as soon as possible to prevent them from going to seed and spreading the problem.
    “If the flowers are removed at this point, they should be composted, placed in a dark plastic bag, or burned if you’re in an area where burning is permitted,” he said. “The best way to eradicate them is with an herbicide in the spring before they grow too large.”


MEREDITH L. KAISER/GAZETTE PHOTOGRAPHER
Lauren Tyler, 12, of Hudson Falls, looks at wild parsnip growing in the yard of her aunt, Kris LaPointe, in Northumberland on Monday.

I wonder if it bothers dogs?  I will have to check online later, this will give me another thing to agonize over on behalf of my dog.

Is Princetown being over run with these Rene?

We spotted these weeds last night when we went for a walk on a lawn that never gets mowed or taken good care of. Real cavones in the Coldbrook section are turning it into a bad area all of a sudden.

I still find coldbrook very nice. If only I could find my way in and out of the place. Who ever came up with that road design should be shot!!!

Quoted from bumblethru

I still find coldbrook very nice. If only I could find my way in and out of the place. Who ever came up with that road design should be shot!!!

I'll second that.  I see Inner and Outer Drive and I shudder, check my gas gauge and pray that I have enough to make it out of there.  I always get lost in there.