Hemlock

Conium maculatum

Plant Data

Order:

Apiales

Family:

Apiaceae (Carrot)

Type:

Flower

Flowering Months:

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC

Flower:

White, 5 petals

White umbels to 6cm wide with small bracts underneath.

Fruit:

Dark browns small, smooth, ridged and flattened capsule. Each fruit contains two seeds. Up to 3mm in length.

Leaves:

Bipinnate, hairy, fern-like leaves. Triangular, up to 20 inches (50cm) long.

Maximum Size:

2 metres tall

Foraging Notes:

Very poisonous plant but fortunately not poisonous to touch. Symptoms following ingestion may include vomiting, nausea, weak pulse, rapid breathing, urination, convulsions, coma and even death.
Never consume a wild plant unless you are 100% certain that it is safe to eat and you know that you have identified it correctly.

Aroma:

The whole plant smells foetid.

Other Names:

Beaver Poison, Beaver Poisoner, Break-your-mother's-heart, Bunk, Caise, California Fern, Carrot Fern, Common Hemlock, Conium, Deadly Hemlock, Deadly Hemlock, Devil's Bread, Devil's Flower, Devil's Porridge, Gypsy Flower, Herb Bennet, Hever, Kecksies, Kex, Lady's Lace, Musquash Root, Nebraska Fern, Poison Hemlock, Poison Parsley, Poison Stinkweed, Scabby Hands, Snake-weed, Spotted Corobane, Spotted Cowbane, Spotted Hemlock, Spotted Parsley, Winter Fern, Wode Whistle, Woomlick.

Frequency (UK):

Common

Habitats:

Ditches, farmland, meadows, riverbanks, roadsides, wasteland, waterside, wetland.