Burns the skin

Giant hogweed: nightmare plant is spreading

Helpers can only take action against giant hogweed with protective suits. Anyone who touches this frightening plant must expect severe burns and even require emergency medical treatment.(Bild: Stadtkommunikation, Gabriele Moser)

Giant hogweed claims dozens of burnt victims every summer. The plant is also increasingly spreading in Austria. 

Once introduced from the Caucasus, this monster plant - aptly named "Heracleum giganteum" in Latin botanical terms - shoots up to five meters into the sky. The supposedly harmless ornamental plant has long since escaped from our gardens and now prefers to take root on the edges of forests, in meadows, on the banks of waterways, on wasteland and even in our own green paradise.

The plant's advance is becoming a danger
Its advance is unstoppable and is becoming an ever greater danger! "The bioinvasor, also known as bear's claw or Hercules' weed, is poisonous, causes severe skin irritation or severe allergic reactions", warns the well-known "adventure gardener" Reinhard Kittenberger from Schiltern near Langenlois (Lower Austria).

It is mainly the sap of the poisonous plant that causes injuries. In combination with sunlight, the Goliath can cause severe burns to all kinds of skin areas once it has "taken hold". For particularly sensitive people, simple contact with the leaves of the Caucasian goliath is enough. According to TCM physician Dr. Helmut Faulenbach from St. Pölten, patients then complained of nausea, fever, sweating and circulatory shocks. Some of those affected struggled for weeks with oozing wounds.

17 hikers injured
Most recently, 17 German hikers had to painfully atone for their botanical ignorance. Four of the victims were hospitalized. To the giant hogweed's credit: it plays an important ecological role as bee pasture. Nevertheless: keep your distance! Because the exotic plant can no longer be stopped - a single one can produce up to 50,000 seeds!

It is also important to avoid aconite, which is considered the most toxic plant in Europe according to the Austrian Civil Protection Association. Poisoning is even possible through skin contact. The first signs appear after just a few minutes. Even death from respiratory paralysis is possible