MANSFIELD — Mansfield’s Service Complex Supervisor Dave Lorenz said Poison Hemlock seeds may have contaminated this year’s city leaf compost, which is freely available for all Mansfield residents.
The city’s Service Complex is in charge of maintaining weed and grass growth along the city’s highways and guardrails. It also sprays herbicides along guardrails. During fall months, it offers a curbside leaf collection.
The plant, which can grow up to eight feet and is on Ohio’s prohibited noxious weed list, is dangerously poisonous to humans and invasive to Ohio’s nature. It was recently found in a North End Community Improvement Collaborative community garden.
Community Garden/Local Foods Program Coordinator Jean Taddie said NECIC uses the city’s leaf compost in its community gardens.
“I was pretty horrified when I found it in our community garden,” NECIC’s Teaching Garden Coordinator Candace Harrell said. “When it’s a seedling it looks just like a carrot or parsnip.”
Harrell said there have been rumors of some unfortunate people putting the deadly plant in smoothies or absorbing the oils through their skin. She said the plant can be confused with wild carrot or parsnip.
Lorenz said he does not know where the Poison Hemlock came from.
“The leaves come from the entire city,” he said. “We’ll probably never know if it came from a homeowner or from wildlife. But there’s always a possibility it will get in the compost.”
Lorenz, an EPA licensed compost applicator, gives the compost site one visual inspection per week to ensure the compost is not contaminated with trash and other undesirable sediment.
He said the service complex picked up and processed 4,530 cubic yards of leaves in 2015. But the compost that was contaminated with Poison Hemlock started “cooking” six years ago.
“That’s how long it (leaf compost) takes to cook,” Lorenz said. “But people come to pick up the compost by the truck loads every day. We can’t make a promise it’s (Poison Hemlock) not going to be in there.”
How deadly is Poison Hemlock?
Poison Hemlock allegedly killed the Grecian philosopher Socrates, a popular method of capital punishment during his lifetime, 470-399 B.C. The Ohio State University’s Weed Guide states that every part of the plant is toxic and causes respiratory failure.
According to Richland County Coroner Stewart Ryckman, the plant’s poison is difficult to detect in toxicology reports.
“You have to know or suspect that’s what someone died from. There are 850,000 different things we can test,” Ryckman said.
He said his records do not show “death by Poison Hemlock,” and he has not heard of deaths caused by the plant in the 12 years of being coroner.
OhioHealth Mansfield records do not show any cases of patients treated for Poison Hemlock.
Despite its acute toxicity, Ohio Department of Agriculture’s assistant chief of the Division of Plant Health Daniel Kenny said there is little the state does to mitigate its vigorous spread.
“It’s really difficult to eradicate a weed. It is important to get the word out, but you know, it’s kind of just part of nature,” Kenny said. “Education is the best thing to be done.”
Kenny said the Plant Health Division of the ODA does not have the authority to enforce weed eradication. He explained that his department maintains the state’s prohibited noxious weed list, which means educating and evaluating different plant species on the list.
Kingwood Center Herb Gardener Glenna Sheaffer designated the plant as “invasive,” explaining the plant’s apparent ubiquity in the city. She recommends eradicating the weed by uprooting it and throwing it in the garbage.
“You can also spray Roundup, but throwing it in the garbage is the best way,” Sheaffer said.
Taddie urged caution when using an herbicide.
“If you use it, read the label. Sometimes they don’t kill the plants we want them to, or they just kill everything. I would just pull it by the root and throw it in the garbage,” Taddie said.
Identification
Taddie, of NECIC, said Poison Hemlock resembles Queen Anne’s Lace (wild carrot) and parsnip.
“It grows really vigorously and it’s usually one of the first things to grow in the spring,” she said, adding that it spreads by seed. “So catching it before it goes to seed or before it flowers is important.”
Sheaffer said the weed’s odor resembles old popcorn, dirty socks and old dishwater.
“It has purple or red blots on the stem and it looks very ferny,” she said. “But yeah, it stinks. Mainly like old popcorn.”
