Wild Parsnip

Pastinaca sativa

The main stem of this biennial plant, which sends out a number of side-shoots, is thick and vertically grooved (even faintly discernable in the photo at left). Each branch ends in a panicle (sometimes a foot across) of small yellow flowers, each blossom no more than 1/4 inch. Leaves, mostly low on the plant, are large and compound, with leaflets arranged pinnately on the leaf stalk and sessile (no leaf petiole); the leaf may be more than a foot long, and each leaflet 3 inches long, ovate, and edged with jagged teeth.

This alien, native to Europe, is the ancestor of the cultivated parship and has edible roots--but the foliage is poisonous.

2-5 feet, sun.

Spring-Autumn (May-October).

6 June 2020.

Wild Parsnip, 11 June 2020.