In message , Tim C.
writes
Following up to "Mike Lyle" :

June Hughes wrote:
[...]
My dog has killed off my bear's breeches, which is a shame. [...]

This caught my attention (among the wise remarks on a subject I don't
get embroiled in, thank you!). I like English names, though like most
people I seem to use them less and less. But this may be the first time
I've seen this one, Bear's Breech[es], used on its own rather than
alongside the Latin _Acanthus_. Does anybody know how this curious name
arose? OED is no great help, but I find that the plant is/was also
called "Bear's Foot", and in Medieval Latin _branca ursina_, "bear's
claw". The Greek word just means "spiny".

Just to confuse matters, OED says "Brank-ursine" was sometimes
erroneously applied to hogweed!

Not too erroneously, perhaps.
Bärenklau (~bear's claw) is the/a German common name for giant hogweed
(Heracleum mantegazzianum)

Blimey! If mine was that, it may be just as well it is dead!
--
June Hughes