Don't let looks be deceiving. While this plant looks harmless enough at a glance, it hides a hidden danger that will ruin your day. This plant can cause third-degree burns and even change your DNA
We're talking about giant hogweed of course. While it resembles baby's breath, giant hogwood ranks among the most dangerous invasive plants in America. It contains a sap that causes phytophotodermatitis. Basically, it will alter your DNA and affect its ability to protect itself from the sun. So you'll burn more easily in the sun. As such, the sap can cause third-degree burns and potential blindness if you get it in your eyes. The effects of the plant can last months or years.
Unfortunately, you likely won't realize you encountered the plant until it's too late. In an interview with the New York Post, Patryck Jones opened up about his excruciating experience with hogweed. He inadvertently ended up chopping down hogweed with his weedeater.
"I thought I had gotten into a patch of stinging nettle so I put some cortisone cream on it and went about my day," the assistant pastor at Life Church told The Post. "It wasn't until the following week that it progressed — it was intense burning, itching and swelling. It broke into pustules and blisters that broke open and left open sores."
Plant Causes Burns
Unfortunately, sweat can make the effects worse. "It's supposed to be pretty, pretty painful for the first couple days, at least," explained Daniel H. Waldhorn, an expert on the invasive plant for New York's Department of Environmental Conservation.
In New York, there's been 10 cases of hogweed causing burns in the last five years, but Waldhorn believes it could be more. "It could be undercounting," Waldhorn said.
He added, "We'll get a lot of people reporting that they've been burned by Giant Hogweed, and then we'll ask them to send photographs, and then it ends up being a different plant. Often it's Wild Parsnip, which is another plant in the same family that can cause a pretty similar burn, and that plant is actually pretty widespread.
He continued, "There's some people who were burned by Giant Hogweed who maybe never reported it. So it's kind of tricky to say exactly how many people are burned, but we definitely get a handful per year."
