Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program aims to increase public attention to the dangers of invasive plants, animals, and micro-organisms.
Below are two examples of invasive plants that can be particularly harmful.
WILD PARSNIP
Pastinaca sativa
- 0.5 to 1.5 m
- Yellowish-green flower clusters 10 to 20 cm across
- Leaves consist of 2 to 5 pairs of leaflets that grow across from each other along the stem, and one diamond-shaped leaflet on the end
- Leaflets toothed and often shaped like a mitten
- Green, 2.5 to 5 cm thick
- Smooth with few hairs
- Biennial (lives for two years); or
- Perennial (lives longer than two years)
GIANT HOGWEED
Heracleum mantegazzianum
- 2.5 to 5 m
- Large, white umbrella-shaped flower clusters 30 to 90 cm across
- made up of 50 to 150 small flower clusters
- Prominently spiked edges Up to 1.5m long
- Leaflets grow right out of each side of main stem, with no leaf stalk
- Hollow, 5 to 15 cm thick
- Prominent purple blotches
- Distinct, coarse, bristly hairs
- Biennial (lives for two years); or
- Perennial (lives longer than two years)
