McKEAN, Pa. – Giant hogweed is far prettier – and far nastier – than its name.

Likened to Queen Anne’s lace on steroids and in the same plant family as carrots, the invasive species is unusual among plants, experts say, because it can cause second-degree chemical burns.

It’s also taken root in a handful of states including Pennsylvania, which has a heavy concentration in Erie County.

“The danger of this plant far outweighs its attractiveness,” said Mike Zeller, an inspector with the state Department of Agriculture.

Because of hogweed’s danger, Pennsylvania established an eradication program several years ago led by Zeller and his partner Jason Fuller. There’s even a hogweed hot line for people to report sightings. The program is supported by the United States Department of Agriculture.

Northwestern Pennsylvania is considered to have the greatest number of hogweed plants of any of the areas where the weed has turned up. Hundreds of sites have been documented around Erie alone. It’s also been found in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon and Washington.

Donna Ellis, co-chair of the Connecticut Invasive Plant Working Group, said that as of early July, hogweed was confirmed in 14 towns in her state. Connecticut officials haven’t determined how hogweed got there, but believe that like elsewhere, gardeners were drawn to it. “It’s magnificent in its stature and appearance,” Ellis said.

Steven Antunes-Kenyon, an environmental analyst with the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, said its been found in at least 14 towns in his state, too.

“We suspect that we have a lot more,” he said, adding the state has begun a public awareness campaign.

On a recent morning, Fuller located a massive specimen growing against an elm tree along an Erie County field, between McKean and Edinboro.

With a machete, Zeller lopped off some small elm branches to get at the hogweed. After Zeller chopped the hogweed, Fuller doused it with a powerful weed killer.

Using commercial weed killers, Zeller said, is “like shooting bullets at Superman.”

The specimen, well over 10 feet tall, had a green and purple-splotched hollow main stock about 3 inches in diameter. Green leaves up to several feet long grew from the stalk, which was topped with an umbrella-like spray of small white flowers.

Margaret Corbin, an avid gardener in Erie County, fell for hogweed more than a decade ago. She saw it growing along a yard and asked the homeowners if she could have some. They didn’t know where it came from, but told her she was welcome to it.

Several years later, her small plants had grown and spread. Corbin thinned them, getting their watery sap on her leg as she chopped. Two days later, the area was red and blistered, prompting her to seek medical treatment and learn more about hogweed. She also destroyed her plants and advises people not to mess with it.

Hogweed is on the federal and Pennsylvania noxious weed list, meaning it’s against the law to grow, sell or distribute it.

“It’s just pretty nasty stuff,” Corbin said. A photo of her red and blistered leg appears in the state’s hogweed awareness brochure.

“If you just bump against it, you’re probably (not going to have a reaction),” said Alan Tasker, the national program manager for noxious weeds for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “But if you get the sap on you, it will definitely trigger the photosensitivity.”

The sap causes a change in human skin, effectively turning the affected area into a receptor that gathers the sun’s energy and reduces resistance to sunburn, Zeller said. Exposure to sunlight causes the affected area to blister – sometimes up to several years.

Zeller has been burned nine times, once so badly that he had a brownish-purple scar that lasted three years. Anyone exposed to the sap should immediately wash with soap and water and shield the area from sunlight for at least two weeks, he said.

Zeller has heard of children playing with the stalks as makeshift telescopes, swords, musical instruments and pea shooters.

No one is certain why hogweed is so prevalent around Erie. Zeller said some of it apparently was brought over by people of Eastern European descent from the Caucasus Mountain area, where it’s native.

Tasker said Erie’s climate may help hogweed grow well.

“It loves the cold,” Zeller said. “It’s the first plant up in spring and the last down in the fall.”

Hogweed is so well known in the Erie area that Zeller is known as “Captain Hogweed.” He and Fuller have appeared on local television and have done educational programs for doctors, municipal officials and schools.

Zeller doesn’t think hogweed is spreading. “More people are becoming aware of what it is and are reporting it,” he said.

The goal is to rid the state of it, hopefully in several years.

“No plants [will] go to flower that we know of. We just attack and attack and attack,” Zeller said.