Toxic weed alert

[LONDONER]

Wait seriously? I have this plant growing at the back of my house.

Are you sure this isn't just social media hysteria?

Maybe it's Queen Anne's Lace:

http://www.ediblewildfood.com/queen-anne...xtLd_5x7Q-

[jaxc]

Well, I'm sufficiently scared enough to not go outside...or get any sunlight :biggrin:

[TigerLover]

Maybe it's Queen Anne's Lace

False alarm.

Closed up It looks very similar to the hogweed but the flowers are slightly bell-shaped. I believe it's Campanula lactiflora.

phew I was imagining some expensive gardener bills.

[LONDONER]

Well, I'm sufficiently scared enough to not go outside...or get any sunlight :biggrin:

Jaxc: Remember knowledge is power,

[LONDONER]

False alarm.

Closed up It looks very similar to the hogweed but the flowers are slightly bell-shaped. I believe it's Campanula lactiflora.

phew I was imagining some expensive gardener bills.

I'm glad it was a false alarm but at least you are now aware just in case in the future.................

[Virge]

I'm glad it was a false alarm but at least you are now aware just in case in the future.................

On the wikipedia link I gave above it had a list of US states and Canadian provinces it's already in.

[LONDONER]

On the wikipedia link I gave above it had a list of US states and Canadian provinces it's already in.

That's frightening. Nature seems to be trying to fight back against all the mistakes that man has made. In the UK they are also fighting againjst Japanese Knotweed that is not poisonous but its roots go so deep and it grows so fast, that it is capable of undermining the foundations of a house.

http://invasiveweedmanagement.co/japanese-knotweed-removal/

[jaxc]

Jaxc: Remember knowledge is power,

And knowing, is only half the battle!

[himself]

When I was 9 years old, I woke up one morning with blisters on my hands. I went to school that day and my friend had blisters, too. We went to the doctor, who concluded that we had touched hogweed. The plant that was growing in our town wasn't THAT big - maybe hogweed and giant hogweed are two different things, or maybe the plant that we were calling hogweed was really something else. I think, a year later, I accidentally touched it again - I could see marks appearing on my hands but I put some Clearasil on it and it was fine. And look at me now - I'm a picture of health. I suspect that either the plant I touched wasn't really giant hogweed. I looked up pictures on the internet - I can't remember exactly what the leaves looked like but I remember what the stalk looked like. The pictures I found online of the stalk are as I remembered them but I suppose the stalk may not be that distinctive.

[LONDONER]

On the wikipedia link I gave above it had a list of US states and Canadian provinces it's already in.

That's frightening. Nature seems to be trying to fight back against all the mistakes that man has made. In the UK they are also fighting againjst Japanese Knotweed that is not poisonous but its roots go so deep and it grows so fast, that it is capable of undermining the foundations of a house.