Hollow stalks and stem produce sturdy bristles.

The inflorescence is a broad

Giant hogweed isn’t dangerous as long as you don’t touch its sap. Thick stems, about 2 to 4 inches wide, support leaves that can reach 5 feet in width. Giant Hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) is a perennial plant and a member of the carrot family. H. mantegazzianum is also known as cartwheel-flower, giant cow parsley, giant cow parsnip, or hogsbane.In New Zealand, it is also sometimes called wild parsnip (not to be confused with Pastinaca sativa) or wild rhubarb. Even when young, its eventual size is apparent by its huge sharply serrated leaves, spikey haired purple tinged leaf stems, giant flower umbel and stem “skeletons” (which usually persist from previous years), and its tendency to dominate all other ground cover. The sap inside the leaves and stalks is what causes burns. Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) is native to Asia and was introduced as an ornamental plant. Giant … Giant hogweed growing in Washington, DC. But giant hogweed dwarfs the cow parsnip, topping out at 14 feet tall with leaves spanning 5 feet across! The iron fence in the photo is 6 feet tall. The weed’s massive size and huge 5-foot compound leaves make it an impressive specimen. Giant Hogweed (latin: Heracleum mantegazzianum) is a flowering plant in the same family as carrots, parsnips and parsley, which is why it is sometimes known as giant cow parsley, or giant … Characteristics of the Adult Giant Hogweed Plant. This plant earns the title of giant, regularly reaching heights of more than … Giant hogweed has the potential to spread readily and grows along roadsides, ditches and streams.

Giant hogweed is native to Asia, but invasive in North America. Heracleum mantegazzianum, commonly known as giant hogweed, is a monocarpic perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae. Giant hogweed - a dangerous, invasive weed - recently began spreading across New York, sparking fear and warnings from the state's Department of Environmental Conservation. Giant hogweed can be 15 to 20 feet tall when it’s fully grown. Giant hogweed can grow up to 5 metres in height at maturity. Giant hogweed is a close relative of cow parsnip, a native plant found in nearly every U.S. state, including Virginia. Cow parsnip stalks are about 1 inch in diameter and solid green, while hogweed stalks can be 2.5 inches in diameter and are mottled with reddish spots, just like another member of the carrot family, poison hemlock. The compound leaves of giant hogweed may expand to five feet in breadth. Photo by Sandy Farber Bandier, University of the District of Columbia Cooperative Extension Service. Dark green leaves are coarsely toothed in 3 large segments with stiff underside hairs, and lower leaves can exceed 2.5 metres in length. You can tell the difference between Giant Hogweed and regular hogweed by looking at the leaves – regular hogweed leaves are going to be more rounded versus the jagged edges of Giant Hogweed leaves.

Giant hogweed is a noxious weed that can grow up to 14 feet tall. Stems are green with extensive purple splotches and prominent coarse white hairs.

Stem The hollow stem of giant hogweed is coarse and ridged with protruding white hairs that are noticeable at the node and base of the petiole. GIANT HOGWEED Heracleum mantegazzianum Description- a member of the parsley or carrot family, growing 15 to 20 feet in height with stout dark reddish-purple stem and spotted leaf stalks. Giant Hogweed is found sporadically throughout Maine, but is not a common plant. Giant hogweed is usually biennial, forming a rosette of jagged, lobed leaves in the first year before sending up a flower spike in the second year and then setting seed.

Giant hogweed has numerous small white flowers clusters in an umbrella-shaped head, with stout, hollow green stems covered in purple spots. Contact with giant hogweed may cause severe irritation to the skin and eyes, blistering rashes, permanent scarring and even blindness. leaves are not shiny, has large leaf sheaths stems are usually green but lower portions can be purple but markings are not blotches, steaks or spots flower stalks and stems have soft hairs, not stiff hairs like giant hogweed The plant has thick leaves that can stretch five feet wide and large clusters of white flowers.

It is a garden ornamental from southwest Asia that is naturalizing in North America and becoming more common in southern and central Ontario.

The weed’s massive size and huge 5-foot compound leaves make it an impressive specimen. White flowers with 50-150 flower rays clustered into an umbrella shaped flower cluster up to 2.5 feet across. It has toxic chemicals called furanocoumarins. Giant hogweed leaves develop into deeply incised, lobed leaves measuring up to 5 feet in width. Between 7 and 14 feet tall (depending upon growth stage) Huge leaves, incised and deeply lobed up to 5 feet across.