Help to ID a plant

[noctilus]

Hi everyone,

This is a very common plant in Yorkshire but all my tries to ID it have been unsuccessful.
Below are photos.
The size varies from 30 cm to 130cm. Grows absolutely everywhere.

Thanks a bunch.

noctilus

 

[Harvestman]

Umbellifers are not an easy group. That may well be cow parsley.

 

[Harvestman]

|One of the best ways to identify cow parsley is that it is always the first of the large white umbellifers to flower.

 

[dwardo]

Close? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicely

 

[Harvestman]

Good call. Cicely is pretty hard to separate from cow parsley except from the fruit, which this doesn't have. Cow parsley is more common though.

 

[Toddy]

Sweet Cicely is mostly past here. It has a really distinctive aniseedy/liquorice scent.

Mary

 

[noctilus]

It looks like cow parsley, the root smells of parsley/carrot, the seeds have parsley smell to them. Thank you very much chaps. It's been bugging me for weeks. :relief:

 

[dwardo]

Cow parsley tends to have much finer feathered leaves but I am far from an expert on umbells.

 

[Toddy]

Cow parsley has a U shaped grove down the leaf stalk. I wish you'd found a better leaf to photo....cow parsley has three distinct leaf break outs. The one you show looks a bit mangled so it might well be.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Harvestman]

One thing to say is for goodness sake don't even think of eating any umbellifer on the basis of someone else's identification, even (especially) mine. I say this because you might read that cow parsley is edible, which it is, but some other umbellifers are awfully similar if you don't know what you are looking at, and they can be seriously, potentially fatally, toxic.

I know you haven't said anything about eating it, but better safe than sorry.

 

[Toddy]

Fool's parsley for instance. Please listen to Mike; white umbellifleurs need absolute certainty of identification. Our most poisonous plants are white umbellifleurs.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[noctilus]

Thank you for the warnings. It wasn't my intention to eat the plant. Just one of those things that bug you for ages , if you know what I mean.
I forage for known and unmistakable plants and fruit. While doing it lately there was so much of that cow parsley around I just got curious.
And yes, umbellifers are a nightmare to ID.

 

[Toddy]

Good attitude to it

I try to find something utterly unique and that can't be mistaken for anything else about each of the white ones. It's the only way I can seperate some of them out.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[noctilus]

I must admit I have a weakness for pig nut though But this one is unmistakable.

 

[Toddy]

Yes
I grow sweet cicely in the garden, and pignuts too Meadowsweet and cow parsley grow along side the burn. I can find most of the others growing somewhere around the villages or the riverside. Still can't identify them all though

cheers,
M

 

[noctilus]

Pig nut in my garden! Why didn't I come up with that earlier ?!
Toddy, thank you for that epiphany
I'll search for some sweet cicely, but it's nowhere around Sheffield, unless I'm blind (which I've been known to be).

 

[Toddy]

It grows quite well in pots and it self seeds among the gravel if you're not careful and if you'll wait until the seeds are well set, I'll post some sweet cicely ones to you. It's a pretty little plant and it smells beautiful

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Goatboy]

While we're on the tricky subject of umbrelifers (so easy to get it badly wrong) has anyone tried Candied Angelica? (Angelica archangelica) My grandfolks used to grow it in the garden and it was always a treat when Gran would candy some. Good for the tummy and a good treat to have a munch on when out for a walk.
Haven't had it in years though. May have to try next year.

 

[Toddy]

I like it I keep it in the pantry for my baking too. It goes into the chocolate-cherry-coconut slice cake I bake, and I use it to decorate mignardises.

cheers,
M

 

[Goatboy]

I like it I keep it in the pantry for my baking too. It goes into the chocolate-cherry-coconut slice cake I bake, and I use it to decorate mignardises.

cheers,
M

Oh that sounds good Mary I think pictures and a recipe are in order for that! There was a great Mediterranean food stall in Perth the other week doing Olives, garlics, baklava and the likes but also all sorts of candied/dried fruit. Had some nice hunks of pineapple and papaya to sit and slice while on the wander 'round the woods before I came in. Very yumm!