Confusion!

[Niels]

What is the difference between a young hogweed and parsnips? I feel like I have been misidentifying these things for months now.
Do parsnips even grow in waysides?

 

[Niels]

Okay, so judging by the amount of views and replies, I guess I will have to put it differently.

Does anyone know what this plant is?


2012-11-20 17.07.32 by Sami knives, on Flickr


2012-11-20 17.06.42 by Sami knives, on Flickr


2012-11-20 17.05.30 by Sami knives, on Flickr



And more importantly, what would happen if I ate it.
As said, I think is it either parsnips or hogweed.

 

[greensurfingbear]

parsnip tends to be a yellow flowers so I would say its not parsnip

 

[bushwacker bob]

The top and bottom pictures look like cow parsley where as the middle one looks like Alexanders.

 

[Niels]

The top and bottom pictures look like cow parsley where as the middle one looks like Alexanders.

Thanks for the effort mate, but I'm confident the pictures are all the same species, and I dare say they're not cow parsley, because the leaves in the middle picture don't add up. There is cow parsley growing right beside it though. If it's of any help, there are tiny hairs covering the whole stem.

 

[Niels]

Come on gentlemen! can't you see I'm at a loss here?

 

[Geoff Dann]

It's hogweed.

 

[Niels]

It's hogweed.

We have hogweed here, and it's leaves are pointier, unless it's a different species, or hogweed has less pointy leaves when it's young.

You see, confusion.

 

[bushwacker bob]

Thanks for the effort mate, but I'm confident the pictures are all the same species, and I dare say they're not cow parsley, because the leaves in the middle picture don't add up. There is cow parsley growing right beside it though. If it's of any help, there are tiny hairs covering the whole stem.

It wasn't any effort. Your confusion may come from 2 different plants.

 

[Niels]

I'll post some better pictures tomorrow, I'm afraid these still don't make clear what a special and hopefully undiscovered plant I found
Until then, I'm gonna stick to a cow parsley-hogweed hybrid.

Any determinations of the species are most welcome!

 

[greensurfingbear]

I'd be going with hog weed too. Does it give off an aroma of wet stable straw when you crush the stem... That's what hog weed smells like to me. Agree the leaves do look rounder in the second picture than you'd expect from hog weed but other than that the other images looks like hogweed.


Orric

 

[Harvestman]

That looks like hogweed to me, and hogweed is edible anyway. it is giant hogweed that is nasty.

However, there are several very nasty umbellifers, especially the water dropworts, so the usual foraging rules apply: if you don't know precisely what it is, dopn't eat it.

Parsnip has yellow flowers, as has been stated.

 

[Gray]

Its either hogweed or parsnip

 

[wildranger]

It's hogweed, there's no doubt here.

 

[Niels]

Here's another picture of the plant.
Note the cow parsley growing right underneath it.


2012-11-21 17.51.42 by Sami knives, on Flickr
I think we can all agree now that it's a hogweed.

Thanks for your help everyone