A teenager who had a brush with "Britain's most dangerous plant" was left with an agonising blister the size of an orange.
Ross McPherson, 16, believes his skin grazed the loathed giant hogweed while on his bike in Dunbar, East Lothian, and within hours spotted a raw, red blister rearing its head.
The wild plant is deemed the bane of gardeners' and health and safety bosses' lives as its sap destroys the skin's natural barrier against the sun's UV rays, resulting in oozing blisters, pigmentation and scars.
Ross's blisters had to be removed without anesthetic, subjecting him to such intense pain that he fainted.
"I was riding my bike and I must've just brushed past it," said Ross.
"It would've been seconds when I first noticed it, my hand was just red and slightly painful.
"I didn't know what it was. It felt warm."
As the blisters began to emerge, Ross said the skin around his left hand began to swell and ache to the point where he couldn't use it properly.
"It felt like having a giant balloon on my hand that was susceptible to pain at any point in the day," said the teen.
He added: "I could barely get my coat off, I could barely put jumpers ort-shirts on; it was unusable basically - I couldn't do anything with it.
"I had smaller blisters over the knuckles, so moving my fingers was also excruciating, so I didn't really do that either."
Ross said his hand was initially assessed by his GP, who diagnosed him with contact dermatitis.
But Ross later ended up checking himself into A&E as the pain continued, with the teenager suffering a mixture of second and third-degree burns.
He described the pain as "absolute hell", with medics scoring a line into the blister as they drained the fluid.
"Some of it was jelly so she opened it up and pulled the jelly out, and she cut around all the dead and blistered skin, and pulled it off - there was quite a lot of it.
"You're not on anaesthetic because they need to make sure the nerves aren't damaged and that you're feeling it - because in the more serious cases that can happen.
"It was absolute hell. It hurt so much. I fainted during it, it was that bad.
"When it was burst, the biggest blister was the size of an orange.
Ross said: "The largest one was seven centimetres by eight centimetres. It was like an orange.
"It was heavy; I could feel the weight of it on my hand continuously."
Now Ross' hand is healing up, but claims the nightmare blister will remain with him for some time.
"It'll remain sensitive for years and years, but they can't give an exact number."
The Royal Horticultural Society dubs giant hogweed an "invasive alien", with the plant able to reach up to six feet.
So nasty are the plants, those found to have deliberately grown them in public spaces can even be prosecuted.
A spokesperson for East Lothian Council said they'd been unable to locate the hogweed following Ross' nasty brush.
They said: "Suspected giant hogweed was reported to us in Dunbar and on investigation of the location provided it was concluded it was in fact common hogweed.
"Every report of giant hogweed is fully investigated and actioned if it is on council land.
"Members of the public are requested and encouraged to report giant hogweed to us via the website or calling the council contact centre so that these plants can be dealt with as they appear."
