One you can eat, the other will kill you...

[JonnyP]

Ok anyone up for the ultimate taste test. I will be seriously impressed if anyone gets this, by just the flower heads, but if nobody does, I will put up the seed heads then the leaves...
Plant no 1....

And plant no 2.....

Any brave folk out there willing to give an answer...
Which one is the edible one....?

 

[g4ghb]

ok i'll stick my neck one the block!.......

1 is the edible one!

 

[Greg]

Well we have a 50/50 chance so I'll go with No1 as the edible....you can tell me I'm dead now!

 

[Bardster]

hmmm the bottom one is the poisonous one - Giant Hogweed? but then there a a few in the Apiaceae family that are easily confused...
edit: although Giant Hogweed wouldnt really kill... Tho Poison Hemlock would...

 

[janiepopps]

Russian Roulette of the plant world.

You are a sick, sick man Mr Pickett!!!

 

[The Joker]

No1 edible (Cow Parsley)

No2 kill ya (Hemlock)

Come on then Jon.............

 

[Jodie]

Well number 1 does look a lot less scary than number 2 - I'm basing this on the stem
size, but for all I know they could be the same plant but at different ages. Those flowers
do look very similar. I'd be totally dead ;-)

Then again the flowers on #2 look very relaxed as if they're having a lovely time wafting
in the breeze whereas the ones on #1 look aloof and unfriendly and perhaps poisonous?

I've got no idea - I also thought there was something a bit hogweedy about them but
I don't know. I'm going to buck the trend and vote #2 as the edible...

Jo (RIP)

 

[Matthew.Passmore]

Id say number 2 is hemlock.

 

[JonnyP]

He he he, I am so giggling here....
It is very hard though, these two look so alike and I proberbly wouldn't get it from just the flower heads...

 

[xylaria]

I hazard a guess top one anise and the bottom one tubular water dropwort, I definitely would not bet my life on it though.:yikes:

 

[The Joker]

OK slight back track

Plant 1....Pignut

Plant 2....Hemlock

 

[jamesoconnor]

No2 will do you damage, its Hemlock me thinks.

James

 

[xylaria]

Hemlock has little tiny leaves around the the base of the outside flowers which is why I didn't think it is hemlock. I don't really have any clear idea what either of them are.

 

[Toddy]

There are only four poisonous white umbelliefleurs in the UK; Cowbane, Fool's parsley, Hemlock and Hemlock water-dropwort.
The bottom picture seems to show the radiating outer petals of Hogweed, which though toxic doesn't *usually* kill.
However the top one looks like Hemlocks small heads......



Nice thread btw

cheers,
Toddy

 

[JonnyP]

I will put up the seed heads tomorrow, that may or may not help....

 

[Chainsaw]

right that's it, I'm never going out again!!

I wouldn't even venture a guess but I'm fascinated to see what the answer is.

BTW all the wrong people have to give me all your kit 'cos you're dead

great thread (if somewhat scary)

Cheers,

Alan

 

[Jodie]

Blimey that's a risk Jon - the suspense might kill us, let alone the fearsome umbellifers.
I think it was a sad day in botany when they changed the umbellifer-aceae (or whatever
the ending is) into something else - Apiaeaceae-eieio.

I rememember playing an argumentative game of Boggle with my friend Roger - who
always won - and while using the dictionary-as-argument-settler we came across the
word "umbelliferous" and noted that the only explanation offered was "bearing umbels".
Always struck me as funny.

 

[John Fenna]

As I have never seen either in a bacon sarnie I will say they are both veg and therfor liable to be fatal to a true meat eater.......
Though I will guess that 1 is harmless to veggies and 2 will kill us all in a truely horrid way involving pain and exposed intestines all over the floor!





but I could be wrong

 

[Biddlesby]

I'll say I'll eat number 2-because nobody else has-although number 1 looks more tasty (My first thought was pignut but I really have no clue and would be chuffed if I guessed that one )

 

[British Red]

Okay here we go - my turn - I'm going for Wild Angelica (top) and Hemlock water-dropwort(bottom)

Red