Part XII
32 named mix-ups — tea leaves, white umbels, autumn cups, and two plants that share a common name. A comparison is not a forage license.
Foxglove for comfrey in a kettle is the worst garden story in this folio. Poison hemlock for parsley is the worst roadside one. If a plant is not in flower and you cannot name it, it is not tea, salad, or a wild carrot.
Pairs involving Fennel.
Hemlock for fennel
Anise-scented foliage is not a field test. Poison hemlock has been called ‘wild fennel’ by people who then got very still.
Fennel is glaucous, yellow-flowered, and smells of liquorice even in the stem. Hemlock flowers white, stinks of mouse, and carries those purple spots. Crush, look, and walk away if you are unsure.
Fennel for dill
Anise cousins in the same bed will cross and confuse a seed harvest. Neither is hemlock, and both have been mistaken for it.
Fennel is perennial, swollen at the base in the bulb types, and liquorice to the core. Dill is annual, flatter, and pickle-scented. Keep them apart if you want true seed. Keep both apart from purple-spotted umbels.
