People frequently ask me if I'm concerned that I might someday eat the wrong plant. I'm always nice about answering that no, I'm not at all worried. I know the plants I harvest, and if I can't ID a plant with certainty, I won't eat it. Some people, though, almost can't believe that someone can easily distinguish between individual species. That's sad enough, but then they want to project that inability on to me as well. (Right: Golden Alexander Flower (Zizea aurea) by wide eyed lib. Tea made from the root of this carrot and parsnip relative has been used to reduce fever.)
There's also a misconception among some people that you have to know every plant out there before you can forage. That's like saying I would need to know every word before I could read, or like saying that I'd need to see every face out there in order to recognize my dad. Sounds kind of absurd when I put it like that, doesn't it?
Covered: poison hemlock
Before I started harvesting wild carrots (Daucus carota), I thought it would be nice if I could also identify poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), wild carrot's poisonous "twin." (By the way, if anyone's wondering why I haven't referred to wild carrot as Queen Anne's lace, it's because I recently learned that QAL is also used for poison hemlock flowers in some parts of the country. Yikes.) But after a number of trips with experienced foragers who pointed out wild carrot, my familiarity with it grew until I felt confident enough to harvest it by myself. Every once in a while I would go online and look at photos of poison hemlock, and each time I would easily identify a handful of characteristics that make it look unquestioningly non-carrot-like. (Left: Poison Hemlock by wide eyed lib)
On Friday I was walking up an overgrown hill when I saw a beautiful plant in the distance. It was easily 10 feet tall and covered with white flower umbels. My first thought was, "That can't possibly be carrot." And indeed it wasn't. It was poison hemlock.
In a race for the most poisonous plant in North America, poison hemlock might be the winner. It's certainly a strong contender. While the vast number of poisonous plants will merely make you sick, poison hemlock can kill you. On page 40 of his new book Edible Wild Plants, Portland-based forager John Kallas writes:
If inhaled in quantity, poison hemlock pollen can also produce permanent lung damage. This can happen if you are in a field where the plant in in flower. As you walk through, brushing against plants or trying to hack them down, the air can get thick with the pollen. The more you breathe in, the greater your exposure.
Poison hemlock is a non-native, often invasive biennial plant that grows throughout the U.S. and southern Canada and has hairless, hollow stems that feature red spots and are covered with a prominent white bloom. Its leaves are deep green, pinnately compound and deeply toothed. The leaves overall are triangular in shape and mostly flat. They also have kind of a rank smell. The flower umbels appear in early Summer and are made up of several different round clusters of flowers that each retains its circular shape within the larger umbel. Flower umbels can appear at any level of growth. The entire plant frequently branches and can reach 10 feet in height and the same in width. The roots are bright white, long, often red-tinged at the top and frequently branched. They smell faintly carroty, but not nearly as carroty as wild carrots. (Above Right: Poison Hemlock Leaf by wide eyed lib)
Those of you who are familiar with wild carrot plants will have already spotted several important distinguishing characteristics between the two species. While recognizing wild carrot is outside the scope of this particular post, I'll point out some of the more obvious differences. Wild carrot plants have many fewer umbels and branch much less frequently. They are rarely as tall as poison hemlock, and carrot leaves smell fresh and carroty. Carrot leaves and stems are solid, hairy and never covered with a powdery bloom. The flower umbels only appear at the top of the plant, and the individual clusters blend into a seamless whole that eventually folds up into a "bird's nest" to hold the seeds. The roots are short and stubby, off-white, strongly carrot scented and branch more rarely. While poison hemlock can tolerate quite a bit of shade, wild carrot requires full or nearly full sun. (Above left: Poison Hemlock Flower Umbel by wide eyed lib. The edges of poison hemlock flowers often have a scalloped quality.)
In case I haven't been perfectly clear, let me repeat that poison hemlock is extremely poisonous. Every part of it contains high levels of toxic compounds including coniine, g-coniceine, and related piperidine alkaloids. Livestock die every year from eating the leaves, and occasionally humans die as well. That's unfortunate and totally unnecessary. With a little study, anyone can easily tell the difference between the two plants.
See you next week!
________________________________________________________
If you'd like to learn more about foraging but missed the earlier diaries in the series, you can click here for the previous 45 installments, and here for RonV's 4 part mini-series on medicinal plants and how to use them. As always, please feel free to post photos in the comments and I'll do my best to help identify what you've found. (And if you find any errors, let me know.)
Here are some helpful foraging resources:
"Wildman" Steve Brill's site covers many edibles and includes nice drawings.
"Green" Deane Jordan's site is quite comprehensive and has color photos and stories about many plants.
Green Deane's foraging how-to clips on youtube each cover a single plant in reassuring detail.
Linda Runyon's site features only a few plants but has great deals on her dvd, wild cards and books (check out the package deals in particular).
Steve Brill's book, Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places is my primary foraging guide. (Read reviews here, but if you're feeling generous, please buy from Steve's website.)
Linda Runyon's book The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide contains especially detailed information about nutritional content and how to store and preserve wild foods.
Samuel Thayer’s book The Forager's Harvest is perhaps the finest resource out there for the 32 plants covered. The color photos and detailed harvest and preparation information are top-notch. His second book, Nature's Garden, is just as good. For an autographed copy of either book, order from Sam's website.
Steve Brill also offers guided foraging tours in NYC-area parks. Details and contact info are on his website.
Don Wiss’s website is a treasure trove featuring hundreds of photos of common northeastern edibles.
For well-sourced info on the medicinal uses of plants, Plants for a Future is a site I turn to time and time again.
Finally, the USDA plants database is a great place to look up info on all sorts of plants.
<-- Previous Diary in Series
Next Diary in Series -->
This diary series is proud to be part of eKos. For other environmental and ecologically related diaries, check out the most recent eKos Earthship.