PIERPONT, Ohio -- A towering, caustic Asian weed is spreading from western Pennsylvania into northeast Ohio, agriculture officials say, and there's little they can do to contain it.

Clusters of giant hogweed have been found in Ashtabula County, with unconfirmed reports of toeholds in Lake and Columbiana counties.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has the plant on its noxious weed list and considers it a danger in at least 12 states, from Maine to Washington. Hogweed sap can cause second-degree chemical burns by acting as "a reverse sunblock," said David Marrison of the Ohio State University Extension office in Ashtabula County.

Specimens grow up to 15 feet tall, with green and purple-splotched hollow stems about 3 inches in diameter and green leaves up to several feet long. An umbrella-like spray of small white flowers tops the stalks.

"It's an amazing thing, really, but a dangerous thing," said Alan Tasker, coordinator of the USDA's Federal Noxious Weeds Program.

Last week, Marrison arrived in Pierpont, about 60 miles northeast of Cleveland near the Pennsylvania state line, to find more than 100 of the plants surrounding a barn.

"It's a forest of hogweed," he said.

Settilio Codispoti, who owns the property, said the hogweed patch started growing a decade ago near a well and has gradually multiplied.

"I tried to kill them, but you can't destroy them," said Codispoti, 73.

The hearty hogweed is impervious to most commercial weed chemicals, so agriculture officials use more potent herbicides when they find the plant.

In Pennsylvania, which established a hogweed eradication program several years ago, hogweed has spread from six known sites to more than 600 in seven years.

"You're all going to find out what we know: It's very attractive until you know the dangers of the hogweed," said Jason Fuller, a field technician for the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

 

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Here are some pics of the burns this stuff can cause: