Uploaded July 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Modern Russia has a lot of problems on their hands, you can probably name them all. But there's one big problem that is really, REALLY different from all other. Heracleum sosnowskyi, Sosnowsky's hogweed, or as we call it, Борщевик Сосновского. This plant was brought to Russia from Caucasus by Soviet scientists and was used as silage for many years. How did an ordinary agricultural weed transform into a nationwide hazard? Let's find out.
00:00 - Introduction
03:13 - Toxic Cow Food
06:41 - How Hogweed Took over Russia
10:26 - Why is it so important?
Sosnowsky’s hogweed is a large flowering plant native to the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and North-East Turkey. H. sosnowskyi is a monocarpic biennial or perennial plant that grows up to 3 m tall. The whole plant contains photosensitizing furanocoumarins that can burn and/or blister human skin (after contact with plant sap and subsequent UV irradiation). The plant’s large size, high fecundity, early germination and vigorous growth makes H. sosnowskyi a very successful invader that can out-compete local flora, cause river bank erosion and is toxic to humans. H. sosnowskyi had been cultivated for biomass and silage production in the former USSR in the second half of the twentieth century. From the 1990s there were reports of the plant escaping from cultivation and conquering all of the surrounding land. The plague could not be contained. While some regional governments now try to spray problem zones with pesticides, Moscow hasn't paid the problem any attention or sought to understand its scope. If Russia does not find an effective weapon against Borscevik in the coming years, all of its agriculturally usable territory be destroyed by the onslaught of this alien invader.
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Hey there. Somehow you found my video and decided to watch it. So let me introduce myself. I'm Sergei and I'm from Russia. My channel is about my native country. I want to tell English-speaking viewers about the real Russia, about its past and present. Unfortunately, you can find a lot of propaganda about Russia on the Internet, both from the Russian media and from the Western ones. I want to tell you about Russia, as it really is, the country in which I was born, grew up, and lived all my life.
Some Links:
https://tjournal.ru/analysis/409327-ot-spasitelya-k-agressoru-kak-borshchevik-zahvatil-zemli-v-rossii-i-pochemu-stal-bolshoy-problemoy
nytimes.com/2020/10/03/opinion/sunday/russia-hogweed.html
https://eufactcheck.eu/blogpost/russian-hogweed/
doi.org/10.7868/S0367059717010036
https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/issledovanie-toksicheskogo-mitozmodifitsiruyuschego-i-mutagennogo-deystviya-borschevika-sosnovskogo/viewer
https://histrf.ru/read/articles/kak-borshchievik-zapolonil-rossiiu
Free Stock Footage provided by Videvo.net and Videezy.com.
Modern Russia has a lot of problems on their hands, you can probably name them all. But there's one big problem that is really, REALLY different from all other. Heracleum sosnowskyi, Sosnowsky's hogweed, or as we call it, Борщевик Сосновского. This plant was brought to Russia from Caucasus by Soviet scientists and was used as silage for many years. How did an ordinary agricultural weed transform into a nationwide hazard? Let's find out.
00:00 - Introduction
03:13 - Toxic Cow Food
06:41 - How Hogweed Took over Russia
10:26 - Why is it so important?
Sosnowsky’s hogweed is a large flowering plant native to the Caucasus, Transcaucasia and North-East Turkey. H. sosnowskyi is a monocarpic biennial or perennial plant that grows up to 3 m tall. The whole plant contains photosensitizing furanocoumarins that can burn and/or blister human skin (after contact with plant sap and subsequent UV irradiation). The plant’s large size, high fecundity, early germination and vigorous growth makes H. sosnowskyi a very successful invader that can out-compete local flora, cause river bank erosion and is toxic to humans. H. sosnowskyi had been cultivated for biomass and silage production in the former USSR in the second half of the twentieth century. From the 1990s there were reports of the plant escaping from cultivation and conquering all of the surrounding land. The plague could not be contained. While some regional governments now try to spray problem zones with pesticides, Moscow hasn't paid the problem any attention or sought to understand its scope. If Russia does not find an effective weapon against Borscevik in the coming years, all of its agriculturally usable territory be destroyed by the onslaught of this alien invader.
If you'd like to support the channel:
💵 Patreon (early access to videos) - patreon.com/setarko
🪙 BTC - bc1qh8szz62crxu9ylg2jx9dz3t6vzzjdw2rheft2m
🪙 ETH - 0x19F11A86adf1ec4DDebEC0f27982805B1d1aba67
🪙 USDT (TRC20) - TYG76yndvrDD8WM9TtkBGauT7682esKZfu
🪙 Other crypto - nowpayments.io/donation/setarko
Links:
Discord - discord.gg/R3j9rKczRm
Twitter - twitter.com/SetarkoYT
Hey there. Somehow you found my video and decided to watch it. So let me introduce myself. I'm Sergei and I'm from Russia. My channel is about my native country. I want to tell English-speaking viewers about the real Russia, about its past and present. Unfortunately, you can find a lot of propaganda about Russia on the Internet, both from the Russian media and from the Western ones. I want to tell you about Russia, as it really is, the country in which I was born, grew up, and lived all my life.
Some Links:
https://tjournal.ru/analysis/409327-ot-spasitelya-k-agressoru-kak-borshchevik-zahvatil-zemli-v-rossii-i-pochemu-stal-bolshoy-problemoy
nytimes.com/2020/10/03/opinion/sunday/russia-hogweed.html
https://eufactcheck.eu/blogpost/russian-hogweed/
doi.org/10.7868/S0367059717010036
https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/issledovanie-toksicheskogo-mitozmodifitsiruyuschego-i-mutagennogo-deystviya-borschevika-sosnovskogo/viewer
https://histrf.ru/read/articles/kak-borshchievik-zapolonil-rossiiu
Free Stock Footage provided by Videvo.net and Videezy.com.
