Now, in the summer time of trips to nature and to the country, one must not forget about one very dangerous plant, which is increasingly spreading throughout the territory of Russia. Every year, several million people get burns as a result of contact with hogweed in Russia.
A rare summer goes by without reports of loss of sight or even death of unsuspecting people who have escaped to nature. The most terrible photochemical burns that do not pass for several weeks, and even the danger of disrupting the structure of chromosomes, one has only to get the juice of this plant on the skin.
Millions of rubles are allocated to combat it, but this practically does not help, and the cow parsnip is spread throughout the country and neighboring states. This plant is considered one of the most dangerous among those growing in Russia.
Now it is difficult to imagine, but thirty years ago, hogweed was a relatively rare plant. Mothers did not have to tell their children how dangerous these huge tall pipes with white flower hats at the top are. Summer residents did not spend the lion's share of their time fighting him, and the roads of the western part of Russia did not adorn the huge thickets, as if left after the filming of a fantastic film.
The hogweed has existed on our planet for millions of years. One of the species, the Siberian hogweed, has been known to the inhabitants of Russia for several centuries, and the first mention of it under the name "hogweed" refers to the 16th century.
Then it was called simply borscht and was actively eaten, most often under this name they meant Siberian hogweed. Its young shoots were added to food, but after two hundred years the names were separated. Soup with the addition of beets began to be called borsch, and hogweed remained hogweed.
Despite the name, Siberian hogweed grows almost throughout Russia. It was he or a similar hogweed that we most often used in childhood for the manufacture of the highest quality spitting pipes. Its hollow barrel is ideal for creating "brass weapons". Hogweed juice can cause inflammation on the skin, however, very mild. By the word "hogweed" until the end of the 80s, everyone meant this very plant, which is often found on forest edges.
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In 1944, the botanists of the Soviet Union reached the foothills of the Caucasus. It was there that a new species of hogweed was discovered by Ida Panovna Mandenova, a Soviet and Georgian botanist-taxonomist. A new plant, not yet known to scientists, was described and systematized. The famous botanist Dmitry Ivanovich Sosnovsky is not at all to blame for our current situation. The plant just found was named in his honor - Sosnovsky's hogweed (Heracléum sosnówskyi). Sosnovsky himself studied the nature of the Caucasus, described many new asters and was a serious expert in the cultivation of grapes.
By the way, in Latin, the whole genus of hogweed, these plants of the umbrella family, has the name (Herácléum) in honor of the hero of ancient Greek myths - Hercules. This name was given to him by the Swedish scientist Karl Linnaeus back in the 17th century for its rapid growth and tall and strong stems. If the scientist knew about Sosnovsky's hogweed, which easily reaches up to three meters in height, then it is not known what name he would have come up with.
After Sosnovsky's hogweed came to the attention of scientists, it was decided to cultivate it as a silage plant - for livestock feed. Silage is a way of harvesting succulent feed for cows. Shredded grass is placed in special towers without air access, where it is reheated and can be stored for several years. Thus, even in winter, cows can receive tasty and healthy feed. Almost like grass from a pasture. Naturally, silage harvesting requires succulent and easily gaining weight plants.
Sosnovsky's hogweed fit perfectly in these parameters. He quickly gains weight, grows well in cold climates. At the end of the 40s, breeder Pyotr Vavilov (the academician's namesake) from the Institute of Biology of the Komi ASSR convinced the leadership of the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VASKHNIL) that hogweed, a source of cheap and effective silage for feeding livestock, would help restore the agriculture destroyed by the war.
Alas, after a few years it became clear that the hogweed feed turned out to be extremely bad. The cows ate it from under a stick, preferring other plants, milk after the cow parsnip diet turned out to be bitter to such an extent that it was impossible to consume it. In addition, hogweed influenced the reproductive system: more and more freak calves were born, cows became infertile. Almost immediately they stopped growing the hogweed as food, but it was too late: the poisonous genie had already flown out of its bottle.
Approximately from the end of the 80s, when the fields begin to overgrow with grass, the cow parsnip begins its triumphant march along the roads and glades of the country. The seed productivity of the central umbrella of the cow parsnip per one generative shoot is from 2500 to 3500 seeds (and inflorescences per individual are from 1 to 5, rarely up to 11), that is, a total of about 20–35 thousand seeds is formed annually by one plant. Sosnovsky's hogweed sharply ran wild and began to dominate the local species with great speed, which were completely unaccustomed to this.
And if in the forest or in the fields he has almost no chance to break through the defenses of the local flora, then in the recently plowed fields, plots of land that were cultivated, abandoned farms for the hogweed Sosnovsky expanse. Plants reaching three meters in height simply prevail over the environment, not giving other species a single opportunity. Plants actively occupy the shores of reservoirs, wastelands, and right-of-way roads. According to some reports, at present, only in the European part of Russia, Sosnovsky's hogweed occupies more than a million hectares.
At present, the hogweed is well distributed almost throughout the western part of Russia. Every year it goes further and further - to the south and east. There is Sosnovsky's hogweed beyond the Urals, they began to fight with him in Tatarstan. Seeds are most often transported by car wheels, along with the wind. As a result, the propagation speed is enormous. In the Leningrad Region there are already very few districts where vacant lots are not occupied by hogweed.
And, it would seem, what's wrong with the huge and almost unearthly thickets? The thing is that cow parsnip is not only an ideal weed that grows over and over in your garden. It is also very dangerous for humans.
For those who have not yet encountered Sosnovsky's cow parsnip, we recommend that you read this as carefully as possible. Every year tens of thousands of people are treated with chemical burns resulting from contact with hogweed. Thousands of people end up in hospitals, for some, meeting with this plant ends in death.
The thing is that hogweed is phototoxic. The clear watery sap of hogweed contains light-sensitive substances from the furanocoumarin group. Under the influence of ultraviolet radiation, they transform into an active form that can cause skin damage. After contact with the plant - especially on sunny days - severe first-degree burns may appear on the skin. A special danger lies in the fact that touching the plant at first does not cause any unpleasant sensations.
Moreover, if the juice is exposed through clothing, such as socks, blisters may appear later, for example, when you take off your clothes in the evening. Moreover, room light is enough to activate. Blisters filled with fluid from contact with hogweed juice take a very long time, they are painful and do not heal well.
Roughly speaking, the sap of the plant deprives human skin cells of protection from ultraviolet radiation. And the skin burns out even on a cloudy day in a matter of minutes. And this is not just redness, but a serious photochemical burn. Death occurs when 80 percent or more of the body is affected.
Hogweed juice in contact with eyes can lead to blindness. There have been cases of loss of vision by children who played with hollow plant stems as with telescopes. Moreover, it is not always necessary to contact the plant sap to get a burn. Often it is enough just to touch the leaves of Sosnovsky hogweed. At risk are children and townspeople who have come to rest in nature and do not know what kind of plant it is. There are hundreds of horrific stories of how cow parsnip leaves were used to line the floor of a tent, stick them on the nose to prevent sunburn, and even use them instead of toilet paper.
Moreover, hogweed is dangerous not only for burns. Sosnovsky hogweed juice has some pathogenic properties even in the absence of photoactivation (even if there was no burn). Thus, it was found that juice is capable of causing gross violations of the structure of chromosomes - chromosomal aberrations. This occurs mainly through damage to the fission spindle (aneogenous effect). In other words, Sosnovsky's hogweed juice causes a mutagenic effect. In addition, it was recorded that the juice inhibits cell division (mitosis), that is, it exhibits mitosuppressive activity.
It is precisely this property that did not allow the cows to enjoy the hogweed silage. Rather, they ate silage, and then received a powerful time bomb in the stomach.
What should you do in order not to get yourself an ultra-fast tan in the form of bubbles in all the places where the hogweed juice could reach? To begin with, and if possible, it is worth remembering for yourself and telling the children exactly what the cow parsnip looks like in order to bypass this plant by the third way.
These are large umbrellas, sometimes just huge (three meters on paper do not look very impressive, in real life they are just giant plants). The leaves of Sosnovsky hogweed are light green, smooth, up to two meters long. Stem furrowed-ribbed, scabrous, partially fleecy, purple or with purple spots. During flowering, the cow parsnip throws out umbrella inflorescences with white flowers. By the way, hogweed is an excellent honey plant, which does not excuse this plant in all other cases.
The hogweed is most dangerous during the flowering period. It is at this time that even touching the leaves can lead to burns and blisters. In other periods, the plant sap is the most dangerous, therefore, if you are going to mow the cow parsnip, you should take care of maximum protection.
If the hogweed juice does get on the skin, you need to remove this place from the light as soon as possible. Yes, first you need not to run to wash off the juice, but to roll up the affected area. It sounds counterintuitive, but it is. Then you need to thoroughly wash off all the juice that has got on the skin under artificial light with soap and water, and after that for at least two more days, do not expose this part of the body to the sun. Yes, the juice could already have an effect on skin cells, and even if it is not left on the surface, the photochemical burn will not keep you waiting.
If burns do appear, then it is worth showing them to the doctor, especially if the lesion is large enough. At home, burns are treated:
1 ointment "Syntomycin";
2 gel Rescuer;
3 aerosol "Panthenol";
4 spray "Olazol";
5 zinc ointment
By and large, these are still burns, so treatment should be appropriate.
Dry hogweed is far from so dangerous. There is no juice in it, and therefore you can safely touch the huge gray dried up stems.
How can you defeat a hogweed in the entire country? Judging by the current state of agriculture, most likely not. Yes, hogweed can only be spread by seed. On the other hand, the root of the plant can live up to 12 years, even with regular destruction of the stem.
Therefore, there are only two methods of extermination. It is necessary to kill the hogweed before sowing the seeds. This is done either by mowing down and destroying the roots, or with the help of glyphosate, which is most often produced in Russia under the Roundup brand. This is a non-selective herbicide, therefore, in the conditions of your site, it is easiest to give injections to the cow parsnip so that the herbicide gets inside the stem (there it will get to the roots). When the cow parsnip is destroyed along the roads, it is usually sprayed, which leads to the death of all living things in this place. However, if the cow parsnip is not completely destroyed, it will be sown very quickly and again will begin its unhurried and silent offensive.
The second method is mowing. Here you need to be as careful as possible, since juicy stems simply sprinkle in all directions when destroyed. Therefore, without a full chemical protection suit, you should not even meddle in these thickets.
There is only one problem: this must be done clearly and systematically, carefully destroying all plants, including the smallest ones. Otherwise, after sowing the seeds, you can start all over again. Therefore, millions of rubles allocated for the extermination of hogweed are wasted. If there is a program in one year, then in another year there were not enough funds for it. This is how the cow parsnip does not go anywhere.
In Belarus, the fight against hogweed is much more thorough. The president personally punishes the collective farms, where they are half-heartedly fighting him or not paying attention. Until we do this seriously, there will be no sense at the state level, as a large federal program.
There is little hope for the creation of a selective herbicide that would destroy only hogweed and be harmless to other plants. They are now trying to create it at once in several scientific centers, but so far there is no news of the production of a medicine against Sosnovsky's cow parsnip. So Russia is slowly overgrown with huge poisonous pipes, and nothing can be done.