COW PARSNIP: PRETTY, BUT TREAT WITH CAUTION

COW PARSNIP HERB MAY BE AS MUCH AS 8' TALL...

...WITH PINNATELY COMPOUND LEAVES, LEAFLETS DEEPLY LOBED...

...WHITE FLOWERS IN HUGE COMPOUND UMBELS

Wednesday, 7:45 AM.  64 degrees F at the ferry dock, 62 on the back porch.  Wind variable and calm, with occasional whispered gusts.  The sky is clear, the humidity 69%.  The barometer is dropping, now at 30.17".  We may have thunderstorms by tonight, but this morning is beautiful.

   More about the plants along the new Salmo trail through the Pike's Creek marsh: cow parsnip is a very tall, strong herb common throughout most of North America, growing in roadside ditches, marshes and other wet places.  Heraecleum maximum (which has some botanical synonyms) is a member of the Parsley Family, the Umbelliferae.  Everything about the plant is outsize.  It is an herb that can grow to eight feet tall; it has huge compound leaves, and very large white compound flowers growing in flat panicles, or umbels.  I would characterize it as grossly attractive.  It might be confused with the even larger, more-gross, non-native and invasive hog parsnip (which has no redeeming qualities at all) so be sure of its identification before attempting to eradicate the latter.  

   Cow parsnip had some American Indian food and medicinal uses, but it also has the same skin irritant characteristics as many members of the Parsnip Family, and the sap can cause chemical burns to the skin, especially in sunshine, as can hog parsnip as well.

   Like all wild members of the confusing Parsley Family, treat this plant and its lookalikes with  extreme caution.