FROM time to time we learn of Giant Hogweed by canal towpaths (Poisonous plant back in the canals) that is poisonous to humans.
Keith Cooper accidentally brushed by the plant whilst out walking—not however on a canal towpath—and ended up in hospital Keith Gudgin tells us.
No sunlight for seven years
The sap from the plant sprayed onto his leg, and he has been told he cannot expose it to sunlight for seven years, or else it will flame up again. The pictures shows a typical rash caused by the plant.
Walking with his wife, who saw the plant, they did not realise it was Giant Hogweed or poisonous, so he went and stepped closer to examine it, and it was then that the sap caught his leg.
Developed a disease
Arriving at hospital, the doctors were at first unable to realise what had caused the condition of the leg, then when they did, it was then he was told he had developed a disease that makes skin hypersensitive to ultraviolet light and can last for years.
Giant Hogweed (as pictured above) was last seen on the canals at Linslade on the Grand Union Canal in 2010, but was destroyed by workers from the Environment Agency.