Giant Hog Weed???

Hedge your bets and take a head of unripe seed. Put it in a brown paper bag and it should ripen.

 

Thanks Hornbeam - allong the lines I was thinking of, like the brown paper bag.

 

we went past hog weed again on the way to the vets this morning. Most of it in flower, but a little turning to seed, so hope we can haevest some - just need to hang in there!

 

The seed travels a long way in the wind it will be seeding everywhere!1 I have been thinking about it all week i love the giants in the wildflowers..the root structure must be good as it stands up against all the elements..how tall is it?

 

Just a note of caution - make certain you have the real thing Ordinary hogweed can reach a height of 2.5m (7 ft)and it is the commonest umbellifer flowering in late summer. The real giant hogweed is much bigger (see my earlier photo)and can grow to 5m (15 ft) - so it is twice as tall :D The juice is photo-sensitive to sunlight and only then can it cause skin blisters.

 

Martin says its about 7ft - I don't know if its the real thing, it looks much paler than your photo but then its obviously at an earlier stage in development.

Got my puppies now (had to have caesarian - all very difficult) anyway at least it means I can escape for a minute to take a photo.

there is only one, but as I say I am sure I remember the old boy that lives in the farm saying he had the stuff and this was many years ago, so may be it has migrated from his farm to the road side.