“An effective remedy is a shovel picked up in time”: a Russian botanist on the fight against Sosnovsky’s hogweed

- Sosnovsky's hogweed is actively spreading throughout the country, information is regularly received about the appearance of a weed in new areas, although talk about the need to fight it has been going on for a very long time.

One of the recently published studies states that by 2040-2060, hogweed may spread throughout European Russia.

And this will happen regardless of how the climate changes.

Are there accurate data on the scale of the disaster and is the distribution of hogweed monitored?

- As for the forecast, there are a lot of them, often just for the sake of attracting public attention.

Often, the authors of alarmist forecasts try in this way to attract funding for the fight against hogweed.

I do not think that too much attention should be paid to such assessments - it is now difficult to seriously talk about such a distant prospect.

Monitoring is underway, several resources have been created for this.

However, there is no centralized system for tracking the distribution of hogweed yet.

However, monitoring alone will not solve the problem anyway - you just need to use farmland more actively for its intended purpose, so that they are not empty and do not overgrow with weeds.

- What to do after accidental contact with a poisonous plant?

— Sosnowsky's hogweed juice contains biologically active substances — furocoumarins.

These compounds are also present in a number of other plants, but it is in Sosnowski's hogweed that their highest concentration is noted.

Furocoumarins are photodynamically active compounds.

Once on the skin, they contribute to the deep penetration of ultraviolet radiation, thereby causing deep chemical burns.

If the juice of Sosnovsky's cow parsnip gets on the skin, it must be thoroughly and repeatedly washed with soap and then with an alcohol-containing liquid.

It is important to avoid exposure to the sun, the skin must be protected from ultraviolet rays.

- What are the rates of distribution of cow parsnip in Russia?

And what factors contribute to this?

- Hogweed is distributed rather unevenly in different regions, so it is impossible to give an unambiguous answer to this question.

If we talk about the factors contributing to its spread, then, I repeat, the main thing is the neglect of part of the agricultural land in the middle lane and in the north, since large agricultural producers prefer to work in the south, where profitability is higher.

Plus, there is no special law that would systematize the fight against hogweed.

For example, now road services are treating only the roadside area for weeds - this is about 3 m from the asphalt.

Then begins either the territory of forestries, or private, where no one can either control or track such work.

Often, the owners of huge plots of land leave them without any cultivation, simply enclosing them with fences.

They themselves do not live there, on actually abandoned lands, hogweed grows, which scatters seeds.

In fact, such landowners create centers of constant distribution of hogweed, and there is no government over them.

However, residents of settlements also often simply watch how the cow parsnip spreads around their settlements, waiting for the arrival of some special services.

And no one wants to just go out with a spatula and cut the plant in early spring, removing its growing point.

Or cut flowers to prevent plants from inseminating.

These are all very simple, but effective measures available to everyone.

— How does the distribution of Hogweed Sosnowski affect the ecosystem?

- The expansion of hogweed leads to the displacement of a number of local species, impoverishment of the ecosystem.

At the same time, it turned out to be able to spread in different climatic conditions on the territory of Russia and neighboring countries - this is a rather unpretentious plant.

- Why was the danger of hogweed, as well as its unsuitability for agricultural use, not noticed in time when they conducted an experiment with its industrial cultivation?

- The fact that Sosnowski's hogweed contains furocoumarins has been known since the beginning of the 50s of the twentieth century.

There are many plants that can accumulate substances toxic to humans, but not all can spread as actively as hogweed.

It was difficult to predict.

• Sosnovsky's hogweed

• RIA News

• © Alexander Wilf

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- No, in the places of its natural growth, the hogweed is not aggressive.

There it occupies its ecological niche, grows in certain conditions, and does not occupy abandoned farmland.

Hogweed is not able to grow in any conditions, but only in quite favorable ones, which are in areas where cultivated plants were previously cultivated.

For example, in arid areas, we will never see it.

He feels best in a cool climate where it is quite humid.

Natural competitors for Sosnovsky's cow parsnip can be fast-growing cereals that form a dense carpet on the surface of the earth.

In this case, the seeds of hogweed cannot fall to the ground, they get stuck in rags from cereals.

Even if they germinate in such conditions, they will die.

- New means are constantly being invented, aimed at combating hogweed, up to the most unusual ones.

For example, it was previously reported that in St. Petersburg they came up with a method for destroying hogweed using high-frequency magnetic fields by heating the soil with them.

It was also proposed to use insects against hogweed - caterpillars of the Pasternakov moth.

And why can't the cow parsnip be destroyed with the help of agricultural herbicides?

- Destruction of Sosnowski's cow parsnip using high-frequency currents is probably possible.

But this is too expensive a method to be able to talk about its mass application.

If we breed special insects, such as the hogweed moth, which will destroy the hogweed, then later they will begin to eat other plants from the umbrella family.

And then we will have to start the fight against these insects.

So this technique is a double-edged sword.

As for herbicides, yes, agriculture uses a range of highly toxic glyphosates that can kill weeds.

However, one should not believe the statements according to which these substances are destroyed in nature in two to three weeks and lose their toxicity.

In fact, they penetrate the soil and then poison plants and living organisms for a long time.

• Works on the destruction of cow parsnip

• RIA News

• © Vitaly Belousov

- What are the most promising areas for finding funds against hogweed, in your opinion?

- The most effective means is a shovel taken in hand in time.

If the first shoots of hogweed are removed in time, it will not grow.

The next important condition is active and competent land use.

And we also need special legislative norms that would oblige each owner of the land to monitor its condition, fight invasive plants and prevent their spread.

Or that private owners open access to their territories for public services that would carry out the necessary activities.

And for violation of these requirements, it is necessary to introduce tangible fines for both individuals and legal entities.

- Is it possible to find some useful application for hogweed - to establish the production of bioethanol, for example?

Or is a wild weed unsuitable for this?

And is it possible, with the help of genetic engineering, to create a plant variety that will have only useful qualities?

- In fact, at one time Sosnovsky's cow parsnip was not just noticed as a potential useful culture.

Hogweed is a storehouse of useful products for us.

They can be used, for example, as medicinal raw materials, even furocoumarins can be used in pharmaceuticals.

Also, essential oils can be extracted from hogweed, and its shoots can be used as fattening feed for livestock - on hogweed, animals quickly gain weight after the winter period.

Since hogweed contains a lot of sugars, it can really be used as a raw material for the production of bioethanol.

And besides, this plant can be used to produce cellulose.

Now such developments are underway, it cannot be said that the idea of ​​using hogweed for useful purposes has been completely abandoned.

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- Invasive species are invasive because they violate the traditional life of natural cenoses, by their introduction they contribute to the death or reduction in the number of local inhabitants.

This applies not only to plants, but also to animals.

There are a lot of such examples: these are lupine, and ambrosia, and goldenrod, and American maple ... It's just that cow parsnip attracts such attention due to the fact that its juice can cause severe burns.

Otherwise, he would calmly occupy the fields, and no one would talk about him.