H OGWEED grew robustly at the wood edge and in the adjoining hedgerow, a common enough sight in North Devon and still in flower though it won't be for long. In fact it was flowering here way back in June so seems to be happy enough and, I think, an attractive member of the Parsley family. It is a stout, upright plant and called hogweed simply because it was gathered for pig food and as a lad I would often collect it for the farmer-cum-milkman I helped at weekends and some evenings. My mother used to boil the young leaves to have in soups and with potatoes during the war when food for free was so important. The taste is similar to asparagus and adds flavour to a meal. Problem was, and we did not know it at the time, is that the plant's scent attracts carpet beetles which move in as undesirable residents in rugs and carpets. Of course, back then we may have had a rug or two but mainly the floors were lino covered so it probably did not matter. On cold wintry days and nights your feet did not touch the floor.

Common hogweed goes by the long winded name of Heracleum sphondylium and we used the hollow stems as pea shooters with no ill effect though it is said it contains a volatile substance that causes blisters on the skin, especially in hot weather. I find this to be the case with Giant hogweed which is much bigger and grows to two metres (13ft) or more .

In summer common hogweed often has bright orange soldier beetles on its white, or sometimes pink, flowers, and these feed and mate upon the plant commonly in May to July.

There are a number of soldier and sailor beetles, so named from colours resembling military uniforms. The one most likely to be seen on hogweed in summer is Rhagonycha fulva and though an old country name is "blood sucker" it does not do so, the name referring to the reddish colour that acts as a warning to birds that it is distasteful and not edible.

It is a narrow beetle which is also found commonly on cow parsley. The larvae feed on small insects and invertebrates including booklice and silverfish found in leaf litter and in the soil.

The pupa is formed in the soil in Spring. The beetle has soft wing cases and long antennae, a creature to look out for next summer.