A monster in the garden?
(click to enlarge to full size)
I spotted this unusual bract hiding in the leaves. I believe it to be a Wild Angelica, (Angelica sylvestris) Common Hogweeed (not to be confused with the rather poisonous Giant Hogweed) found in hedgerows and which grows to 1- 2 m in height. The large, mound-shaped flowers are pink-tinged at first, becoming white. I’ll feature the flowers later in the year.
(Thanks Steve for helping me identify this correctly. If you want exquisite flower photography then please pop over to his wonderful wild flowers of Texas site)
Earth laughs in flowers 
Wat a hairy monster! Your closeups are superb, Jude. 🙂
It looks like it could bite… I had to look up umbellifer, thinking it was some kind of jungle terminology. Waiting for next episode now intrigued to know what the flower looks like.
I looked at pictures of Angelica sylvestris but none seemed to show leaves as thick and fuzzy as those in your photograph.
This was of a leaf emerging, the rest of them aren’t so hairy. It is difficult to see whether the leaf shape is the same. Maybe it is a different umbellifer?
Possible suspect – Common Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium)
The leaves in the photograph in your reply do seem similar to those of Heracleum sphondylium.
Just watched a video of a guy foraging
http://www.wildfooduk.com/articles/giant-hogweed-and-common-hogweed/
– apparently this plant is edible and a hit with chefs 😕 The young leaves in salads and the emerging leaves (used like broccoli) and the young stems cooked similar to asparagus. I ought to give it a try, but wouldn’t want to get it confused with the Giant Hogweed!
If you can get an expert to confirm the identity, then it’s off to the kitchen for you and the plant. What a menace the giant hogweed is.