If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise . . .
— from the children’s song Teddy Bear’s Picnic
London children are facing a very big and nasty surprise in the woods of London these days.
The noxious giant hogweed, a veritable Douglas fir among perennials, is lurking there — and it’s no picnic.
The leafy menace has been spotted along pathways bordering the Thames River.
Merely touching the Asian invader can cause nasty blisters and then rubbing your eyes can lead to blindness.
A handful of sightings along the Thames Valley Parkway has left Bonnie Bergsma, the City of London ecologist, quite concerned.
“It’s nasty,” Bergsma said Wednesday.
“And there are some locations that are troubling because of the risk to young children, especially.”
The plant that resembles Queen Anne’s Lace on steroids and can reach heights of four or five metres is in bloom with its wide cluster of tight white flowers, Bergsma said.
She was most interested in the latest sighting this week by Karen and Bill Gordon along the Thames River trail just west of Highbury Ave. in northeast London.
Karen Gordon said at first she didn’t know what she was seeing when she and her husband were enjoying one of their regular walks on Monday not far from their home.
“It was just the ‘awe’ factor,” she said. “Something just didn’t seem right about it.”
The plant she mistook for overgrown Queen Anne’s Lace was taller than her 6-foot-4 husband and about three metres from the footpath.
It wasn’t until the next day when a friend in Lucan sent her a photo of a giant hogweed found there she realized what she had seen and learned the invasive species can harm humans.
“I’m really concerned about it,” Gordon said. “There are so many kids who go down fishing in the river and they also bike through there.”
Gordon said she wants the public to understand the threat posed by the plant she thinks city hall should eradicate.
“I would say tear it out,” she said. “It is so dangerous.”
Bergsma at city hall agrees. She said she is receiving reports suggesting the invader is spreading along the Thames.
“There is a concern when it is near the paths where children go,” she said. “All it takes is for them to get it on them and then rub their eyes when they are crying. It’s very dangerous.”
Bergsma said signs are being developed to alert passersby to the hogweed and the city has begun to rip them out.
The sighting in northeast London is the latest, she said, but another cluster of plants has been spotted near Gibbons Park in north London.
“If we carry on a strong battle against it, we can halt the invasion,” the ecologist insisted.
She said she hopes to share photos of the plant with the public advising them to stay away.
“The caution for people in natural areas is to stay on the pathways, don’t wander off pathways and don’t pick plants.”
The giant hogweed is far worse than poison ivy, Bergsma said, but she remains confident it can be eradicated.
“I don’t believe any management of invasive species is a losing battle,” she said. “It’s may be a formidable task, but it’s not a losing battle.”
Five jurisdictions around Southwestern Ontario including the counties of Huron, Perth, Grey and Wellington and Waterloo Region have declared the plant a noxious weed and require landowners to destroy it. Middlesex County is about to enact similar legislation.
Meanwhile, for Gordon, she shudders to think about the giant plant mere metres from one of her favourite walkways.
“I just saw the one,” she said. “That was enough.”
Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum)
Origins: Southwest Asia, now spreading into Southern Ontario
Description: Large perennial with reddish-purple stems that flower in white clusters in late spring to mid-summer. Can reach five metres in height
Caution: If touched, releases sap that can cause severe skin inflammation that becomes a burn when exposed to sun. Even small amounts in eyes can cause temporary or permanent blindness
-- Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
