Ontario readers please take note. According to the CBC, biologists and health officials in that province are scrambling to contain an invasive plant that can cause severe burns and blindness. Because of the warm, wet spring and summer [caused by global warming, perhaps? ed.], strange new plants have suddenly appeared in places where they've never before been seen, like the Ottawa valley. The worst is heracleum mantegazzianum, or giant hogweed, a poisonous plant most recently found growing in Renfrew County, west of Ottawa. It's said to be a very poisonous plant. If you get any of the sap from this plant on your skin, it can cause severe blistering and very bad burns. If you should happen to get the sap in your eyes, it can blind you either temporarily or permanently.
A similar weed, heracleum harperium, is believed to be growing on Parliament Hill. It causes political blindness, with side-effects of overarching ambition and extreme stubborness. No cure has yet been developed.
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