Sosnovsky's Hogweed

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Hogweed is a tall herb (Celery family). It has been known since ancient times. For its gigantic growth and powerful mass, the Roman botanist Pliny assigned the generic name to the hogweed - the name of the ancient Greek mythological hero Heracles - Heracleum L. It has been used in folk medicine since the days of Ancient Egypt. The most famous and widespread in our country is the Sosnovsky hogweed species, which was named after the famous researcher of the Caucasian flora, D. I. Sosnovsky.

Almost 2-3 thousand years ago, in the Caucasus, they began to eat this plant: as greens, it was used to prepare salads, cabbage soup, pickles and marinades. Hogweed is an excellent honey plant: it is estimated that up to 500-600 bees are actively working on each hectare during its flowering. It is also characterized by high feed properties. Its plants contain a lot of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, microelements, and in terms of the supply of cobalt, its green mass is close to leguminous herbs. In addition, hogweed contains a lot of zinc, copper, manganese, iron and enough calcium. It is an excellent component for the preparation of combined silos with a wide range of crops: the feed intake of such silage mixtures by animals is high.

The rapid growth in spring and the formation of a large plant mass, as well as the prolonged vigorous activity of the leaves (the yield of green mass ranges from 400 to 800 c / ha) make this crop highly promising in fodder production. According to all these signs, Sosnovsky's hogweed as a fodder plant can be beneficial for any farm that contains cattle. Under natural conditions, the Sosnovsky hogweed is widespread throughout Russia and the CIS countries, even entering the Far North beyond the Arctic Circle. It is found on forest edges and clearings, on sheltered mountain slopes, along river valleys and among bushes.

However, along with the positive biological and medicinal properties of Sosnovsky's hogweed, it also has its negative sides. Everyone should know about them so as not to suffer from this plant. Back in the 70s of the last century, fears were expressed that after the end of the exploitation period of the hogweed crops it would be difficult to destroy it, and that it could turn into a malicious weed, since it is capable of self-sowing propagation (the most serious danger of soil contamination with seeds at the place of its cultivation) … These fears have now largely come true. For example, the abundance of high thickets of hogweed along the roadsides of the SZNIISKh fields in the village of Belogorka, Gatchina region, is striking. There now you can often hear the unkind words of the specialists of this institute about the hogweed. The chains of its tall plants accompany us along the St. Petersburg - Novgorod road. And many gardeners of the Leningrad region, probably, celebrate big "burdocks"- leaves of Sosnovsky hogweed not far from their plots.

It is known that the medicinal qualities of hogweed are due to the presence in it of a large group of biologically active substances (furocoumarins, essential oils, etc.). But the presence of individual furocoumarins in plant sap sometimes complicates the use of cow parsnip as feed for animals.

Furocoumarins have the ability of the so-called photosensitization, i.e. a strong increase in the body's sensitivity to light. Even if contact with sap or a plant occurred in the dark, then when the skin is irradiated with natural light the next day, the same clinical symptoms appear as in the case of skin lesions during the day with simultaneous irradiation. In the evening or at night, accidentally wading through the forest thickets with a cow parsnip, you may not notice that the juice of accidentally damaged leaves or stalks of a cow parsnip gets on the skin, but then it will cause unpleasant symptoms that are incomprehensible to the "traveler". Small children and even adolescents, accidentally and carelessly handling hogweed, can be seriously injured.

Of course, the neighborhood of the feral hogweed Sosnovsky may seem unpleasant to any gardener or gardener. To combat it, it is very important to know some of its most important biological properties. This plant is frost and cold-resistant (under the snow it can withstand frosts down to -40 … 50 ° C), moisture-loving, demanding on moisture, soils prefers fertile light and medium loamy, sandy loam. It grows poorly on poor and acidic, as well as infertile soils. The root system in plants is pivotal, well developed, but it does not penetrate deeply into the soil: the bulk lies in a layer up to 30 cm (individual roots reach a depth of more than 2 m). In the upper part, the root is branched, the main and lateral roots are fleshy. At the break, they secrete a light yellow liquid (with a pungent smell of essential oil), which has a strong pungency.

The plant enters the reproductive stage of development at 2-4 years, but with annual pruning (before flowering), it grows in one place up to 8-12 years. It has a powerful, rounded, grooved, hollow, very succulent flowering stem (up to 1.5-2.5 m high, 4-6 cm in diameter at the base). In the conditions of the North-West zone, one plant produces up to 60-100 g of seeds (1000 seeds weight 12-15 g), covered with a dense skin. After flowering and fruiting, the hogweed dies off. Seeds buried by more than 3 cm give sparse shoots, therefore, in areas where they are trying to eradicate these fruiting plants by agrotechnical means, deep plowing is carried out with high quality. But we must bear in mind: seeds that have lain in the soil in a swollen state for 1-2 years are capable of germinating and then sprouting. With the chemical method of dealing with this plant, roundup is used according to the dosage recommended in the instructions.

And now let's see what troubles the cell juice of Sosnovsky hogweed can cause if you do not take precautions when in contact with it, and what are the symptoms of the disease that can appear on human skin because of this. This is especially important, since the negative effect of juice on human skin may not follow immediately after it gets into it, but may occur, say, in a country house, i.e. where there is no opportunity to provide medical assistance. Depending on the duration of contact of the juice with human skin and light irradiation, dermatitis may occur on the body, proceeding as burns of I, II and III degrees.

With type I burns, the parts of the body where the juice got into it soon begin to itch and turn red; burning sensation and itching reaches a maximum after 2-3 days. Swelling of the skin is observed, after two weeks the skin begins to peel off, after which dark age spots remain, which persist for up to 2-6 months or more.

Type II burns are often accompanied by a general deterioration in health: fever, chills, weakness and headaches. Within 5-6 days, bubbles with serous contents are formed, which are absorbed after a week. Bubbles fall off and a brown crust forms. Age spots remain on the body.

Type III burns are the most severe form of dermatitis, when ulcerations appear on the body, which are formed when the blisters are opened. Such a lesion can leave behind reddish-brown or whitish scars that do not dissolve for many months.

Thus, it should be learned that plants and sap do not cause any pain in contact with the skin at first. Symptoms can appear after a few hours or even days. The severity of skin damage also depends on the measures that were taken upon contact with the juice.

People react differently when the juice is exposed to their skin, for example, blondes are especially sensitive to the action of furocoumarins.