The July Weed of the Month is Giant Hogweed. This species is of great interest, but is currently not known anywhere in Yamhill County. There is a closely related species, Cow Parsnip, that is often mistaken for Giant Hogweed. While they look quite similar, there are some key differences between the species – most importantly, Cow Parsnip flowers in May and early June, while Giant Hogweed would start to flower in July. So if you’ve seen similar plants around, but they’ve already flowered for the year, it’s just the native Cow Parsnip and nothing to be worried about!