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Is this poison hemlock?

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  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889
    just dig it up , and don't eat it.  ;)
    Devon.
  • LiriodendronLiriodendron Posts: 8,328
    I don't think there's enough information in your photos to ID this.  Many wild plants have similar leaves - hedge parsley, wild carrot etc - and I wouldn't eat any of them.  Many are not poisonous but they're definitely not food plants.  As Hostafan says, dig it up if it's in your garden and don't eat it!
    Since 2019 I've lived in east Clare, in the west of Ireland.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Louise, why would you think so?
  • louisejanethorninglouisejanethorning Posts: 5
    Thank you for your reply. I do have another couple of pictures here if that helps
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    From the Wildlife Trust

    ” A poisonous plant, hemlock has a repellent smell when its leaves are crushed, helping to ensure that accidental poisonings don't occur very often - even livestock studiously avoid it. This biennial plant prefers damp places and can grow in huge colonies on waste ground, riverbanks and ditches, but can also be seen along roadside verges. It produces umbels (umbrella-like clusters) of white flowers in June and July.

    How to identify

    A tall, upright plant, hemlock can be distinguished by the distinctive and unpleasant, mousy smell of its foliage and its purple-spotted stems. Its leaves are finely divided and large, and its flowers are small and white and appear in umbrella-like clusters.”

    Yours isn’t 2 metres tall, isn’t in a damp spot, doesn’t have purple blotched stems and doesn’t look like it flowered six weeks ago. So, unless you come back and say it has the whiff of mouse, no, it’s not poison hemlock.

    Rutland, England
  • louisejanethorninglouisejanethorning Posts: 5
    Thank you for your reply, much appreciated. There were some purple blotches on one of the stems, I did include a picture but perhaps it wasn’t very clear.  Also I’m guessing these are seedlings rather than established hemlock? Any other thoughts much appreciated.
  • bédébédé Posts: 3,095
    Show us another pic when it flowers.

    Or alternatively remove it now.  I don't know your plans, but the whole area looks like it needs a bit of clearing.
     location: Surrey Hills, England, ex-woodland acidic sand.
    "Have nothing in your garden that you don't know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
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