Giant hogweed?

[User48321]

Just down the road from me someone has what looks like a giant hogweed plant in their front flowerbed. The flowerbed is carefully tended, and the hogweed plant (if that's what it is) has clearly been planted there on purpose. Could I be mistaken? I suspect that ringing their doorbell and telling them that a clearly wanted plant is dangerous and should be removed wouldn't go down well.

How confident are you in your ID?

There are lots of plants that look similar to giant hogweed. Could be Angelica, we have some in our garden.

Why on earth would you want someone to remove a plant that’s nowhere near you? Even if it is hogweed if they’re gardeners then they will know what they’re growing 😳

If it is giant hogweed, and they knew what they were growing, they wouldn't. It's a notifiable weed and hugely dangerous - a friend of mine spent weeks in hospital because of giant hogweed.

Can you post a pic? Maybe ask them? They are monsters and you don’t want them spreading down the street. Sone roads near me have them. A couple popped up 3 years ago now loads. They are v ugly too so I can’t see a gardener planting them on purpose!

Can you share a photo?

Are you confident in your id? Can you confidently distinguish between Hogweed and Giant Hogweed?

They are allowed to grow it as long as they don’t allow it to spread to neighbouring land. That in effect means not allowing it to seed. It doesn’t spread by runners.

They are v ugly too so I can’t see a gardener planting them on purpose! That’s simply your opinion. There are several white umbellifers which are sold as garden plants,and superficially they all look very similar.

I'll try to get a photo of it, but it's difficult as they're likely to see me from their living room window. A poster is right that angelica looks similar.

Round here, you can report giant hogweed.
I reported one about 10 days ago. Walked past it yesterday, and it has clearly been sprayed.

That said, are you sure on your ID?

We have regular hogweed in our garden and it does look very similar to giant hogweed. It's tall, well over a metre, and I believe it can grow to around 2m. The giant stuff really is giant, there's a patch on my commute that easily reaches 3 or 4 metres tall!

Giant hogweed will have purple staining/dots on the stem, unlike hogweed or cow parsley.
https://stories.rbge.org.uk/archives/16268

Here it is.

Is the stem smooth or does it have bristles?

From the flowers, that looks far more like angelica than giant hog weed.

That isn’t giant hogweed, the stems are nothing like it. I agree with PPs that it’s probably Angelica. Hogweed stinks too.
If you wanted to speak to the neighbours you could do it more tactfully than the way you described! You could ask them what it is rather than accuse them of cultivating a dangerous plant.

That's not giant hogweed. The flowers all point upwards and the stems are green with purple patches and hairy.

That's angelica.

Ah, that's a relief. Of course, I would have been as tactful as I could, but it's a bit strange to knock on a stranger's door and ask them what one of their plants is. Especially if you believe it's something dangerous. So best to find out first. Apparently angelica is very good for post menopausal health. We do have some giant hogweed around here, by a stream, but I keep my distance from it.

That’s definitely Angelica, my SIL grows it in her garden.

Leaves are wrong for giant hogweed too. They have a sort of pointed look to them. And the flowerheads are flatter and larger than a dinner plate.

The umbellifer familay (now called Apiaceae) is large and includes carrot, parsnip, dill, fennel, parsley, hemlock, hogweed, giant hogweed, cow parsley, ground elder. They all have the basic flower head shape of lots of flower stalks all arising from the same point (like the spokes on an umbrella) and many of them are difficult to tell apart.

No, that's not giant hogweed, the flower heads are way, way too small and the wrong shape.