Side by side
Compare plates
Lay two plants next to each other — uses, risks, and whether either has a grow guide.
LegalDeadly
Poison hemlock
Conium maculatum
Socrates' cup — a purple-spotted parsley that is still mistaken for fennel, carrot, and Queen Anne's lace.
Flavor
Do not taste. Literature describes a mouse-urine, parsley rankness.
In favor
The most important lookalike lesson in this folio
Against
Fatal in small amounts
Days to harvest
Not a crop. Learn the purple-spotted stem in year 2 bloom.
LegalGentle
Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare
Anise-sweet seed for gas, colic folklore, and after-dinner breath.
Flavor
Sweet licorice and warm green anise. Seed is sweeter than leaf.
Symptoms
bloating, indigestion, cramps
Against
Lookalikes in the wild
Days to harvest
80–100 days for bulb; 120–150 days for ripe seed