Poison Hemlock / Spring / Summer / Deadly
Common names
Poison Hemlock, Hemlock, Poison Parsley
BOTANICAL NAME
Conium Maculatum
KNOWN HAZARDS
The whole plant is deadly toxic
COULD BE CONFUSED WITH
Cow parsley, Fools Parsley
RANGE AND DISTRIBUTION
Fairly common throughout UK and Europe, also North Africa and Iran
HABITAT
Waste ground, damp places, hedgerows often avoiding acid soils and heavy shade
PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
The stems are rounded and hollow with no hairs and purple spots or blotches that become more obvious as the plant matures. The leaves are feather like and grow in opposite pairs with a terminal leaf. The leaves are very similar to Cow Parsley. The flowers are umbels, meaning the flower stems are like the spokes of an umbrella with the flower clusters at the end, the flowers again are very similar to those of Cow Parsley, with a creamy centre and 5 white unevenly sized petals. The seeds are 2 semi circles, together they make a rounded and striated ball. This plant smells carbolic and unpleasant.
EDIBLE USE
This plant is deadly toxic, do not eat.
HERBAL
This plant is now not really used as medicine. It has been used as an analgesic, antispasmodic, emetic, galactofuge and sedative, it was also used to treat tumors, epilepsy and whooping cough.
MISCELLANEOUS
Hemlock contains deadly alkaloids that affect the nerves that control the lungs, causing nerve paralysis and those who ingest Hemlock die of suffocation.
