Herb. No. 076 · Apiaceae
European umbellifer, now a toxic roadside plant across North America.
Native · Europe
Native Also grown
OpenDeadlyplant
Poison hemlock
Conium maculatum
Socrates' cup — a purple-spotted parsley that is still mistaken for fennel, carrot, and Queen Anne's lace.
Handle as a poison-garden specimen. See Safety before any use.
Coniine paralyzes from the legs up. A forkful of mistaken 'wild carrot' has killed foragers in the last decade. Purple blotches on the hollow stem, a mousy smell when crushed, and hairless stems are the field marks — but this plate is here so you leave every unknown white umbel alone. There is no home medicine.
Flavor
Do not taste. Literature describes a mouse-urine, parsley rankness.
Parts used
None.
In favor
- The most important lookalike lesson in this folio
Against
- Fatal in small amounts
- Looks like food plants