Today, a plant called hogweed is officially considered a common weed. However, in the Soviet years, it was one of the agricultural plants that were actively cultivated. Largely because of this, the hogweed received the nickname "Stalin's revenge" among the people.
Scalding hogweed
Sosnovsky's hogweed is a herb that belongs to the umbrella family. The weed grows rather quickly, so the height of its stem can reach 4 meters. No wonder the second, Latin, name of the hogweed sounds like Heracleum (Hercules).
The cow parsnip is poisonous and contact with it can lead to serious burns and even death.
Moreover, this plant is extremely prolific. Seeds appear both as a result of insect activity and as a result of self-pollination. Just one hogweed gives about 20 thousand seeds, which have excellent germination. It is thanks to these factors in the natural environment that the hogweed easily displaces other plants.
Previously, the main habitat of the hogweed was the Caucasus. However, for some time now it has become a real disaster for other regions and even countries.
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Why they began to grow it
They began to cultivate hogweed almost immediately after the end of the Great Patriotic War, at the end of the 1940s. It was then that Stalin learned that in the countries of North America this weed is used as feed for livestock. Since then, the victorious march of the hogweed began throughout the Union. Even after the death of the leader, his work in this area was continued by other leaders of the country.
In the 1970s, the Poles also began to grow hogweed. However, the cows ate the poisonous plant with great reluctance, and more often they completely refused such food. And the milk tasted bitter after such a meal. It was as a result of these discoveries that the offended inhabitants of Poland dubbed the hogweed "Stalin's revenge."
Fight against hogweed
Despite the fact that the artificial planting of hogweed after the events described began to decline, the weed continued to spread throughout the country at a cosmic speed. He began to literally crowd out other, but already useful cultures. The once-hoped-for forage plant turned out to be a real scourge of the fields years later.
Only recently did Sosnovsky's hogweed leave the register of agricultural crops and again became a weed. At the moment, specialists are developing and implementing many programs to combat poisonous and harmful plants.
Yulia Popova
