Identifying Hemlock, Poison Hemlock, Poison Parsley, Conium maculatum
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 17 июн 2019
- How to identify Hemlock, a common deadly poisonous plant native to the UK that every forager needs to know about. By www.wildfooduk.com
For more information about Foraging, please click the links below;
To read more about the Plant featured in this video: www.wildfooduk.com/edible-wil...
To visit our Website: www.wildfooduk.com
To book a foraging course: www.wildfooduk.com/foraging-t...
To purchase a copy of our Wild Food UK Foraging Pocket guide: www.foraging.co.uk
To Purchase your foraging equipment: www.foraging.co.uk/product-ca...
To visit our recipes Section: www.wildfooduk.com/wild-food-...
To Visit our social media:
Twitter: / wildfooduk
Facebook: / foragingintheuk
Instagram for Wild Food UK : / wildfooduk
Instagram for Foraging.co.uk: / foragingshop
![Sean Rii, Karyon, Sharzkii - Taungule [My Love] (Official Music Video)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eJoMuypbSzQ/mqdefault.jpg)
I was not happy to see the presenter handling the hemlock in a cavalier manner. I have just survived being poisoned by the plant, having absorbed the poison just by trying to break a few stems. I was unfamiliar with the plant, but was concerned that my Greyhound would chew it, as she does some other weeds. On bending the stems I noticed a transparent liquid which had lingered on my fingertips. Luckily I survived to tell you about symptoms. The poison starts by attacking the central nervous system and I first experienced a headache. This was followed by extreme pain all along the spine and also in the legs. Sleep was impossible because of the pain and my balance was affected.
My doctor, presumably had not seen previous cases involving hemlock and was unable to provide a diagnosis. However, because of the rapid onset and (for me) a unique set of symptoms, I began to suspect I had ingested something noxious. I remembered the weed incident, photographed a specimen and used Google image search to identify it.
Within a couple of days I visited a local hospital . The doctor there took blood samples and the results showed that my liver and kidneys had not yet suffered. He advised another test in three weeks. There is no antidote to hemlock poison so he advised me to drink plenty of plain water in an attempt to flush out the dangerous alkaloids.
Please remember that Hemlock poison can easily be absorbed through the skin. People should never even handle this deadly plant. Children should be warned and educated to recognise it. Here in the UK at any rate, the fleshy stems have a purple colour once the plant is about a foot tall so it is easy to spot once people know this. I dodged a bullet and hope this note will help others to avoid suffering because of ignorance. NB The fatal dose is only a tiny one tenth of a gramme.
well I mean you had the sap all over your hands by the sound of it, and you probably ended up touching your face and stuff too, while being oblivious to what it was. This guy in the video who knows what he's doing, was just lightly touching the leaves which isn't the same at all. It's not like you'll likely be poisoned just from walking through this plant as you would from giant hogweed
A salutary lesson that ignorance of our flora and fauna isn't bliss! I'm glad you've recovered though.
If you're unfamiliar with any plant or tree or shrub and you happen to touch it, let alone get its sap on you, then please please wash or disinfect your hands asap and don't touch any other part of your body, especially face, eyes, mouth.
It sounds dramatic but it can save your life.
I'm so glad you're OK.
I've been pinching off a piece of plants on my walks with my dog out in the country recently and taking the bit home to identify. I did that yesterday not knowing it was poison hemlock. I absorbed a small amount of the sap through a small cut in the skin and had a really rough night. I didn't ingest any but it's experience I'll never forget and a plant I'll never forget. I was more afraid last night than I was when I learned I had stage three cancer. For 12 hours, my blood pressure & heart rate were all over the place.
I stayed at my neighbor's house, who is a retired nurse, and she observed me ready to drive me to the ER if I manifested any respiratory or difficult symptoms. Fortunately, the amount that I absorbed was very small and resulted only in one day of discomfort.
Because we live it way out in the country she could get me to the hospital faster than the ambulance could arrive.
I can't believe he's handling it like that and sniffing it up near his face, nose, and eyes! I disagree with him about touching it like that. A certain amount can absorb through the skin if you get the sap on your skin, especially if there's a cut. If you touch it and then invertently rub your eyes or touch your mouth you're toast.
@@yourmum69_420 There's truth in what you say, but it's best to err on the side of caution.
@@Susweca5569 fair enough. Thank you for sharing your experience
I can't believe that a "plant expert" is handling Poison Hemlock in this manner! I found out last summer that the incredibly beautiful plant my husband and I had fallen in love with was poison Water Hemlock! Queen Anne's Lace / Yarrow grows wild in the fields around our home so we'd assumed the birds brought it into the plant bed which stretches along the bulk of our terrace because suddenly, there it was in all it's glory...and so damn pretty!! Only when I finally identified it just to be sure did I realize what it was and saw that it was sprouting up in the whole bed! Honestly, I don't know how we managed to avoid death because we'd been brushing past it several times a day...stopping to admire it and i'd even taken photos! So, I did a ton of research and decided to do the Hazmat thing...bought a disposable suit, proper goggles, masks and wore high rubber boots (which I eventually hosed down) and elbow length welding gloves (which I eventually washed in the machine then sun-dried). Taking my time over two full days of cutting the plants down snippet by snippet, carefully laying each one directly into a huge barrel lined with large, extra tough garbage bags that i'd tie up securely and store for a trip to the container park / hazardous materials disposal site. In decades of gardening, this was my first experience with such a situation and I forbid my husband to interfere because his proposed solutions were not responsible, at all. After I got the plants down to just above ground level, I carefully removed the root systems and then covered the entire area with a series of the thick black garbage bags and secured everything with large, heavy stones for the sun to cook the bed down one full month. That took place over June / July, our hottest months, so we won't know until Spring whether or not new seedlings appear but so far so good. Now I know how to identify and (hopefully) eradicate the highly poisonous Water Hemlock with purple-splotched stems in a safe, secure manner.
Like many foragers, this individual considers himself above poisoning. He even touches his eyes and face, the broken stem resting on the back of his hand. The white ichor that seeps from broken stems can easily kill.
Reads about hemlock, dargerous to touch, eat, smell
"So this is hemlock as you can see in my hand, you can describe it by smell"
*horrified confusion*
Hemlock is clearly not dangerous to touch or smell, but I certainly wouldn't eat it ;)!
Wild Food UK yea, thank you for your video
@@WildFoodUK1 How much of what you were holding would i have to eat before being a lethal dose?
@@Phoenix_Atlas a few leaves - less than a handful
@Dorian Phoenix Did you eat it raw? How much roughly did you eat? I just ate my first batch of cow parsley (or maybe sweet cicely) in a salad and your comment is making me feel much better lol - I do have that scare in the back of my mind I got it wrong (think I'll be fine though)
Thank you, I only googled to check if what I’d seen was hemlock and found your video. Stayed for the whole thing and now subbed as your presentation was so good!
Excellent video! Your botanical knowledge is obviously vast. Thank you for this wonderful and instructive lesson. Apiaceae are indeed fascinating! They help support our organic farm here in Georgia, USA. We all have a dark side.
Oh my gosh. Everytime you touched the base of the broken stem or when you crushed the leaves to smell and then would unconsciously rub your eye I hoped you were ok...and still do.
I have seen this plant growing right next to wild carrots here in the US. Thats almost as scary as the deadly mushrooms I see growing in the center of a patch of fun mushrooms.
"fun mushrooms" hahaha.. you could say they're.. fun guys..
Thanks Marlow. Very useful, and helpful.
Awesome video.. very informative. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Superb. I've just discovered you and your channel. Subbed instantly. Brilliant material. Thank you.
Netherwent (1 month ago) is absolutely right in their comment. I came on here to make the point that some unfortunates have terrible allergic reactions just from touching it and need hospital treatment. It's best to err on the side of caution and wear gloves - I wear latex ones for pulling up the tiny shoots and gardening gloves for larger ones. I don't think he showed that the stem is a hollow tube. I drip bleach down it to try and kill the roots. The stuff is a determined grower and spreader and horribly invasive - I spend hours trying to keep my garden clear of it.
Informative video. You know your plants! Thanks
Great information but would have been better with a couple of close ups when describing the leaves etc but still a great film. Thankyou for sharing, always very informative 🙂👍
Can never have too many videos on the hemlocks. I am still on an ongoing quest to actually find some and identify it, I keep looking out but any parsley plants I see are almost invariably cow parsley. I did see some impressive plants of Sweet Cicely in the gardens of Leeds castle (haven't spotted it in the wild yet) and immediately recognised it, having grown some before myself, but it never occurred to me the similarity between the leaf shapes. There's no mistaking the smell, though. Interestingly, I am pretty confident in the Leeds castle ground that I actually saw some Hemlock Water Dropwort growing beside a stream, it had broader more flatleaf parsley-type leafs and a very smooth looking stem. Seemed like the ideal place for it.
@Ben Turner I could be interested in photos, wow that's a lot, I wouldn't report it personally, it's not an invasive or non-native plant and doesn't compete with other plants so I see no reason to treat it as a pest, it's different from something like giant hogweed, the best you can do is hope parents emphasise to their kids not to just go around nibbling on parsley-like plants.
Very Interesting. Thanks so much!
It gave me anxiety watching you handle the plant without gloves on and touching your eyes as you speak. I hope you are okay mate 😟
He's dead
great video!
Very nice vídeo, thanks for sharing
Glad I found this video. I was running through lots of this stuff with a skidsteer when I learned it was poisonous. I've been worried that I may have inhaled it somehow but watching you do it so easily I don't feel so bad lol.
Thanks for the info!
@Jamal Ramadan barely
@Jamal Ramadan write me into your will. We're pretty much brothers now.
Drink some tea and you will be fine
I was trying to get a look at the leaves but they kept moving around.
I have a plant in my flower garden I think it’s Queen Ann’s lace , but no smell. It definitely isn’t Hemlock. Thank goodness
Thank you for the information, much appreciated .
Hemlock is relitively easy to id in its mature state. Loads of it growing around my local area. Water drop wort (I'm pretty sure that was the plant socrates took) is more of a bugger for me at least. I do pick and consume umbellifers. But I generally steer clear of those that have leaf structures similar to hemlock as I'm not yet that confident
What are the benefits of consuming umbellifers?
Fantastically informative, thank you. Would have liked to see the flowers in close up. Cow parsley has gone over and suddenly this locked down world is full of umberliferi that I cannot differentiate... It's like not being able to read!
If you live in the U.S it might be worth chopping this stuff down because it is invasive here, just not in Europe.
Thank you. ❤
Just found this in my backyard in Texas, crazy how these things can "travel"...
Thanks for sharing I would be hard pressed to id this as, there are some lookalikes, meadow sweet, angelica and fennel seem similar, luv n light x
Yeah my father told me as I was kid to NEVER ever ever eat something looking like caraway, cumin, anise etc. outdoors. One of the worst.
We were always taught to stay well clear of it as children - although what we had in our neighbourhood was Cow Parsley or Keck, I guess just in case we happened across some Hemlock or Hogweed and thought it was harmless!
NB Its great for burning in fires when dead in the winter and bone dry!
Hi, can i ask is in England any other untouchable poison plant, except that you told about Giant Hogweed? 🕵️♂️
Please make a video on garden drangous bugs and caterpillar? Thank you
I could be wrong, but Isn't there a species of hemlock that does have a sugary carrot smell?
"The happy widow knows where the wild hemlock grows"
Like the start of this video champ.
Thanx :)
@@WildFoodUK1 also every time you say your channel name it sounds like you say
“you okay” 😂 always wanna say yes I am lol
A wild animal emerges from the bushes!
Good video, need more close ups though! Any chance of a video showing common hogweed vs cow parsley vs cow parsnip vs hemlock vs water hemlock?
Cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum) is an American plant which I don't think can be found in the wild in UK and Ireland. But, according to Wikipedia, common hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) is also known as cow parsnip.
If you look at pictures (or another video on this channel) of a common hogweed, you'll see that the leaves are very different to hemlock and fairly easy to differentiate.
The differences between cow parsley (wild chervil) and hemlock are more subtle so it's probably safest to leave cow parsley alone. As was said in the video, it doesn't taste great anyway.
I've only recently become familiar with these plants and am still learning so take everything I say with a pinch of salt.
@Dorian Phoenix They're the same species.
@Dorian Phoenix If they're different species, what's both of their scientific names?
@Dorian Phoenix No, I mean their scientific names. Latin isn't exclusively used.
@Dorian Phoenix Acanthus is one that comes to mind. Google "List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names" and you'll find many others. That's why I was correct in saying "scientific names", not Latin names.
Watching these back. I'm after a uk version of wild lettuce 🥬. I've seen what I think is uk wild lettuce but not sure. Could you do a video on it? Does it have the same properties as other wild lettuce ❤️
I often see it growing in urban areas. I've nibbled a leaf on a few occasions only to end up with blood shot eyes and feeling slightly drowsy.
Marlow, if you were to touch Hemlock leaves and then eat a sandwich straight after without washing your hands could that poison you? Bit of a random question, just curious. I noticed you holding it without gloves, is there no chance of sap getting on you
No that's a good question that I am asked regularly. I'll happily handle it or even a death cap mushroom before eating a sandwich. Their toxins need to be ingested in reasonable quantities eg eating the leaves, to have any effect, and anything left on your hands from a bit of sap or spores wouldn't affect you
@@WildFoodUK1 Thanks for your reply. You have a great channel, greetings from Manchester.
As I noted in my comment above, the great risk comes from absorbing liquid by breaking or bending the stems. I don't know if simply handling the leaves poses a risk, but knowing that Hemlock is the most poisonous plant that most people will ever experience (and having been poisoned myself) I certainly would not risk eating that sandwich!
i have a question.... i found a plant like that with hairless green stem with purple blotches but its not very tall at all probably like 1-1.5m max does that mean that it is not a poison hemlock ? i live in central eu if its of any help.
Not sure what it might be growing on the continent, but poison hemlock and all other umbellifers will flower when short if they are cut damaged or disturbed and broken in some way during their growth period.
Nature usually gives poisonous plants this purple rash up its stem to warn that its dangerous so I'd stay well clear of it if I were you.
Are there any key differences between the leaves of hemlock and those of mugwort? I'm thinking the young plants are very similar but am hoping to be corrected
Hemlock has a more triangular overall leaf system with 5 times pinnate leaves. Mugwort is much less pinnate, but if you're not sure, leave it behind until you are. Mugwort also has similarities to Monks Hood which is also deadly.
@@WildFoodUK1 Please can you do one on how to id sweet cicely?
Anything that looks carrot top i stay well clear..i just dont want to risk it.
I just pulled a ton of this out of a new home I bought!! I’m so scared now 😮
Don’t worry, all the alarmist comments in this post are nonsense. Touching it is not dangerous. Just don’t eat it ;)
Do any umbellifers have the purple blotching except hemlock and perhaps giant hogweed?
I have seen Common Hogweed with blotches too. The smooth hairless stem of Hemlock will give it away over the lookalikes though.
@@WildFoodUK1 That's interesting, thanks. Makes me wonder if you get common / giant hogweed hybridisation! I do see some hogweeds that are not giant hogweed (leaves aren't shiny or jagged enough and not quite tall enough) but are nevertheless really tall (2.5m?) and stocky.
@@jonbaldwin I recently found a plant showing characteristics of both common and giant hogweed. It was flowering at just over 2m, but the flower was definitely a Giant Hogweed flower. It's currently with the Bristol Uni Biology department who are testing it to see whether its a hybrid or just a deformed Giant Hogweed... Will let you know the outcome..
@@WildFoodUK1 absolutely fascinating! Will keep an eye out for the results. I have to be honest: I have a bit of a severe lifelong phobia of the large umbellifers after stumbling on a giant hogweed as a toddler and my dad explaining to my young mind what a monster plant it was! So I watch your umbellifer videos with a sort of morbid fascination! One day I may eat a common hogweed shoot to conquer my fear!
@@WildFoodUK1 did you find out?
A woman in North Texas was recently poisoned by touching poison hemlock. So the info about hemlock being safe to touch is confusing. Different variety, climate?
I have been handling it for most of my adult life, as have millions of unwitting gardeners. Its very common so I'm surprised and a bit doubtful that anyone was poisoned by touching it.
Omg, I used to play and mess around with all this when I was kid. Luckily I never ate it.
does it have a known benefit to anything? other plants? insects? animals?
insects like it, also it produces oxygen
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
Wipes his eye. O_o. My man, stop going to the eyes!
Does Poison Hemlock ever have a red dot in the middle of the flower?
Like a small reddish purple flower in the middle of the white cluster? That sounds like Queen Ann's place, but I'm not sure.
That's wild carrot you're talking about I reckon!
That might be Queen Anne's Lace esp if it has a fuzzy stem.
Hemlock has red blotches on a smooth stem.
Did he just say it's got some amazing edibles like Hogweed? Isn't Hogweed dangerous?
Giant Hogweed is very dangerous and should not be touched. Common Hogweed is a good edible but should be handled with care, particularly on sunny days. ruclips.net/video/-twjXFcn7yI/видео.html
He didn't specify but did say hog weed is edible.
@@WildFoodUK1 Was also a it confused by that. They also get bloody massive.
Are the seeds tiny sticker burrs that grab onto your clothes and shoelaces by the hundreds?
that would be Cleavers (Galium aparine) which has them seeds :)
Still confused about how to tell between hogweed and other poisonous umbellifers. I am a particularly special type of moron, though - no matter how many of your superb and very enjoyable walks I go on, I get no more confident in foraging anything other than blackberries! Not at all a comment on your demonstration skills, you understand - it’s entirely my own idiocy!
You'll get there :) Hogweed is much less pinnate than the poisonous relatives.
This is in the U.S.A now
Can you send me this plant?
Why are you holding it?
Obviously because that isn't dangerous, just don't eat it
@@WildFoodUK1 ah but it is!
I really hope it’s not poisonous because I broke off a few stems earlier today and am now so scared😢😢
Darn hard to identify that family; they tend to look the same unless you are an expert.
👀👀👀👀👀👀
Go to 1minute 45 seconds to get useful information. The first 1:45 minutes is Babble.
Why do we read that it shouldn’t be touched due to skin irritation and always wear gloves 🧤
whewww nasty thing to find in your yard ..i wonder how to kill it.
Fire
CORTEVA Tordon RTU Herbicide is Blue Color.Drip it on bottom so goes to roots and will kill it.Where gloves when putting Tordon on and keep it off all skin or Clothes.
You can smoke this plant 😉😎
Why is the presenter handling and inhaling hemlock? It's so poisonous!
Because its only dangerous to eat!
No offence but all these plants are phototoxic so to act in such a cavalier manor in handling them without warning is not cool.
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮
I saw two giant hogweeds 😮😮😮