BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

here's a photo:

edit: not sure why that one got taken down, here's another:

Thanks for the photo Erok!

is that for real? looks like the land before time.

Very real. And very troublesome. The sap causes UV sensitivity that can last for a couple of weeks. It can even cause blindness. Not something to mess around with. It has made it to the Laurel Highlands, so will probably be in the more urban areas before too long.

yeah, "giant" is not a misnomer. It really is. If it weren't such bad news, I'd think it were awesome. But it's really bad news, so it's one of the few plants I'm more than a little afraid of. At least kudzu and knot weed are edible.

queen anne's lace on steroids looks like a pretty apt description!

and speaking of knotweed, is it just me or has the city taken a pretty aggressive anti-knotweed stance this summer? it seems like every day i see a crew somewhere tearing them down, or a new empty swath that used to be filled with knotweed.

I think I saw one of those yesterday... maybe on Days Run Rd / Gillespie Rd between Creighton and Deer Lakes Park. I'm used to seeing Queen Anne's Lace and I remember thinking, "man, that thing is growing like crazy this year". Wish I could remember the exact spot, but it was along the side of the road & about 7 feet tall.

It would be useful to know what these look like when they're only a couple of feet tall, and at what time of year they become identifiable.

HOLY *#H@*@(! I doubt it has the same lovely wild carrot characteristic of queen annes lace.

Otherwise, at least the giant bunnies would be happy.

Also, I had no idea that knot-weed was edible. :p

yeah, apparently knotweed is quite asparagus-like when it is about 3 inches high, and can be treated like rhubarb as well (like rhubarb pie). Unfortunately I don't like the stuff's flavor, otherwise I'd eat for free 10 months out of the year from the infestation my neighbor has let take over their empty lot. Then again, put enough sugar and lemon juice over anything and it becomes palatable. Wild grape leaves are also edible. Onion grass and Garlic mustard are delicious enough that my local crop is noticeably thinner than in past years

Weeds are often good free food, except this stuff. hogweed = evil; hogweed != food.

there are a bunch of photos of at the bottom of this King County, WA website.

crucial song about this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDwyBWjfFaM

^ good one! The lyrics are worth looking up.

There are some Queen Anne's lace like plants next to the sidewalk on Fifth east of the Birmingham bridge. About 100 yards east of the rehab place there. I'm guessing and hoping it *IS* Queen Anne's Lace, but will keep an eye on it to see if it keeps growing.

queen anne's lace is pretty much everywhere right now.

@ejwme: is it possible to harvest these wild carrots for any useful purposes? how would one go about doing that?

@hiddenVAriable queen anne's lace is pretty much everywhere right now.

Thanks. That is probably what I saw.

yeah, wild carrots look just like hemlock. Harvest at your own risk. More info: http://foodunderfoot.com/tag/wild-carrot

However beside queen anne's lace is often a little blue flower - anybody else confirm that it's chicory? Interwebs tell me it's so, but I'm not confident in my identification abilities.

this was a good one on the site that @dmtroyer posted:

Not to be confused with Cow Parsnip and native wild edible. However, its a good practice to not touch things in the carrot family around the time they flower. Several species can cause a nasty rash, including cow parsnip and also wild parsnip (yellow flowers).

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iKawzGKhsv0/SiIfw688wvI/AAAAAAAACtk/s6CAnrrcJQg/s400/GiantCowParsnip.jpg

I'm amazed how similar cow parsnip and this giant hogweed are. Is cow parsnip found anywhere around western PA? I've never seen it. That said, if I see anything that looks like it, I'm reporting it to the toll-free number in the first post.

Stu, I was going to respond that cow parsnip is the same thing as queen ann's lace, but wikipedia tells me I'm wrong. Now I'm not sure which I've been seeing all my life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_Parsnip (which can apparently grow to 6ft tall, so half of Giant Hogweed height)

vs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daucus_carota (which is typically 3ft tall, so maybe this is what I always see).

biodiversity is awesome, but it always makes me feel so stupid. I need some botany classes.

Queen Anne's lace is common enough, and likely what we're used to seeing. I suspect cow parsnip isn't an invasive (correct?) but not common here, so if we see anything in WPa, it's the giant hogweed that needs to be reported.

And while we're posting things that look like Queen Anne's Lace, here's poison hemlock:



So be careful foraging.

This may be a stupid question - (I understand in the instances of invasive species of animals or insects)... but how do invasive species of plants from Asia end up here in Western PA?

Surely no one picked up this nasty plant in Asia and brought it over here. Usually when people do that kind of thing, it is because the species has some sort of benefit. Anyone have insight on where these Hogweeds came from?

@MichaelArtman GYAGDSE (as they used to say)

From Wiki Giant Hogweed was among many foreign plants introduced to Britain in the 19th century, mainly for ornamental reasons. It is now widespread throughout the British Isles especially along riverbanks. By forming dense stands they can displace native plants and reduce wildlife interests.[7] It has also spread in the northeastern and northwestern United States and central and eastern Canada. It is equally a pernicious invasive species in Germany, France and Belgium, overtaking the local species.[7] It was introduced in France in the 19th century by botanists, much appreciated by beekeepers.

Not sure exactly how it got here, but I guessing a beekeeper, a gardner looking or exotics or maybe a botanist.

It's surprising tot me that it didn't spread slowly from the Caucasus and Central Asia to continental Europe all by itself. What woudl be the barriers to natural spreading?

IIRC, Kudzu and Japanese knotweed were introduced deliberately.

Europeans were introduced here intentionally.

@edmonds59, who introduced them here?

I think it was Leaf Ericson.

@mick oh boy, I'm sure a botanist or even an enthusiast could give you a long list and fascinating histories of invasive species. Eucalyptus is another one that comes to mind.

We have an invasive bird, the starling, because of Shakespeare, or more accurately, because someone wanted an example of each critter that showed up in a Shakespearean play. [link]

People transport wildlife, both plant and animal, for the stupidest reasons.

oh, introducing non-natives was ridiculously easy until they started the "no plants, no soil, no seeds, no..." at the borders.

There is one plant, I forget which one, that made its way over in packing crates from China, since it was nice and fluffy when dried, but had tons of seeds. As a result it's all over our water ways (where people opened crates and pitched the packing material and seeds on to the ground). It got introduced here in the 1800s, been going crazy ever since.

Kudzu was introduced in the 1800s and encouraged until 1970. It was going to help with erosion and feed livestock or something. They didn't know. There's some carp infiltrating the great lakes that escaped from being someone's pets. Cane toads were introduced to Austrailia to eat the native cane beetles that were destroying sugar cane crops. Rose of Sharon and bamboo you can buy at a home and garden store near you - yet these are invasives that spread like wildfire here (btw, if you want rose of sharon, just dig up some of mine - I can't get rid of it).

Invasives are only invasive because the elements that kept them in check in their native lands aren't in place in the new space, so they choke out the locals, drastically changing the old balance of plants, animals, insects, even soil makeup. Not all introduced species are invasives. Technically, the earthworm is not native to north america. Not sure where the line lies.

We're only slightly smarter about how to STOP introducing new invasives. We're not any more brilliant about figuring out how to eliminate them once they're already here, or sorting out a decent balance if we have to accept them as part of the new normal.

It's surprising tot me that it didn't spread slowly from the Caucasus and Central Asia to continental Europe all by itself. What woudl be the barriers to natural spreading?

probably the central asian steppes. plants this large generally don't do well in such dry areas, and this one seems to prefer riverbeds, indicating it requires plenty of water. so that's my guess.

ejwme - If we're thinking of the same plant, it's phragmite, which is crowding out our native cattail:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmites

@ejwme There's some carp infiltrating the great lakes that escaped from being someone's pets

I really dislike the Asian Carp getting inot the gret lakes.

OTOH, ther'e part of me saying to that fish in captivity, "Go, little goldfish! Go! Make a break for freedom!"

I seem to recall stories of a group of Amazonian piranha in the Everglades--ex-pet discards that survived the trip through the sewers...

I think a better question I've always wondered is are there any invasives in ASIA that were species originally only found in the AMERICAS? Honestly, any time I hear about a devastating invasive I've only heard about it ORIGINATING from Asia, but I've wondered if they have different invasive issues over there.

@impala

Well potatoes corn, peppers, cocaine, chocolate and a number of other plant products came from the Americas. In general thoguh, Eurasia was a much larger landmass (Actually Eur-Afro-asia" is more like it) so the old world had more good (beer, cannibis, opium, wheat, cows) and more bad (smallpox & measles, carp) to give to the new.

Arthritis was new world thing, too.

Invasives seem to follow people and exports - we appear to be fond of killing off our natives and importing exotics from other places.

One could consider wheat, corn, cotton, peanuts, and chocolate invasives, the vectors being humans. If that's the case, they've taken over vast swaths of all the continents (including asia).

if islands are to be considered asia, there are plenty of invasive animals that have all but killed off all the local fauna, but those mostly came from europeans, i suppose.

Hmmm...I seem to recall hearing that rabbits became a huge problem after introduction to Australia. But I'm too lazy to Google it.

Racoons in Japan are destroying many old traditional buildings from making nests.

They had pigs imported to New Zealand a long time ago for stranded sailors to survive on

They're now used for medical testing because they have a unique genetic strain or some such

The gypsy moth is a known defoliator of American forests, imported from Europe where it is a pest, but controlled by native gypsy-moth-eating critters.

OTOH, while the fall webworm is an irritating caterpillar here, it got exported to Europe, where it is a major defoliator.

Give one, take one.

@impala the canada goose is considered an invasive species in Europe by the wikipedia

I think I have said it before on this forum, but I consider Homo sapiens the most successful invasive species, although we have spread on our own and not from outside help, more or less.

When I traveled to Hawaii, I discovered that they are big on checking people to make sure certain plants, fruits, and other things, are not brought to or taken off of the big island (and I am sure all of the other islands). Dogs must also be quarantined for 30 days or so.

I noticed people in Hawaii seem to show off their dogs - take them out in public more than I see other place. Eventually I realized it's a way to say "I live here."

Hemlock grows near water. WildCarrot/Q.A.Lace actually smells like carrot if you smell the roots.

American fire-ants from the south west are a problem in mainland China.

KnotWeed was brought here by the railroads to stabilize the soil when new tracks were laid.

Stu

Cow parsnip is common along the allegheny passage. Don't see it so much in the city, mostly I see queen anne's lace, poison hemolock and wild parsnip here. I think the key to understanding Giant Hogweed is that it can get 20 feet tall! None of our other carrot family friends get anywhere near that height.