By David Carnduff

A MUM is demanding action to remove poisonous plants from a Barrhead park after they left her son with horrific injuries.

Lorna Percival rushed her 11-year-old boy Adam to hospital after he suffered agonising blisters on his leg caused by giant hogweed.

Adam came into contact with the toxic plant while playing with a friend at the ABC Park, near Aurs Drive.

Now 32-year-old Lorna has urged East Renfrewshire Council to remove the hogweed, before another child is badly hurt.

She told the Barrhead News: “All the council has done is spray it with weedkiller but that could take four weeks to work and I’m also worried it will grow back and continue to be a hazard for the kids who play there.

“I want them to dig it up by the roots and take it away.”

Adam’s ordeal began when he was initially stung by nettles at the park.

He decided to rub what he thought was a dock leaf on the sting in the hope it would take away the pain.

However, the schoolboy had actually rubbed his leg with giant hogweed, which has been dubbed “Britain’s most dangerous plant”.

Lorna, of Graham Street, said: “It was the worst thing he could have done.

“Things went from bad to worse and he was in lot of pain. When I saw what was happening to his leg, I took him to accident and emergency.

“The staff there said they had never seen anything like it.”

Giant hogweed is part of the carrot family and is common on riverbanks and wasteland.

The plant, a close relative of cow parsley, has white flowers, thick bristly stems and can grow more than 16 feet tall.

Native to Central Asia, it was introduced into Britain in 1893 as an ornamental plant but “escaped from domestication.”

Toxic components in the leaves, stems, roots, flowers and seeds can be transferred to skin by touch.

These do not cause burning alone but they make skin sensitive to sunlight, which can then cause rashes, burns and severe blistering.

The effects may not start straight away - often appearing up to 48 hours after exposure.

The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology says severe blistering can “recur for many years”.

It says Giant Hogweed “causes damage to DNA”, adding: “Contact with the cut material in sunlight produces a reaction in almost everyone. The degree of symptoms will vary between individuals, but children are known to be particularly sensitive.”

The NHS says anyone who touches giant hogweed should wash the area of skin with soap and water and keep it covered.

Adam, who is a pupil at Cross Arthurlie Primary, has now recovered from his ordeal and is back at school.

A spokesman for East Renfrewshire Council confirmed there is hogweed present at a strip of high grass next to a burn at the park and that it has been treated with weedkiller.

He added: “The grass is there to stop children getting close to the water and this has proved successful for a number of years.

“The high grass area next to the burn was treated with weed killer on May 2 and, having checked it again on May 11, the hogweed is already showing signs of dying and this normally takes a maximum of four weeks.

“We are scheduled to check and re-spray the area in June and will monitor the area closely this summer. This treatment regime has been carried out in this area for several years and has been successful on each occasion in controlling the hogweed.”