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Comment by altgeek | Hacker News Reader

The Sweet Cecily, as a member of the carrot family, resembles poison hemlock. Anything with that flower and leaf pattern immediately sets off alarm bells in my head when I see it.

See https://www.growforagecookferment.com/poison-hemlock/

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As do most members of the carrot family to be fair. These are some of the most delicious and edible plants! It's not actually that hard to learn to tell them apart to be honest. Any gardener who's watched their plants grow would probably be able to tell the difference

I was told this about Queen Anne's Lace, which I let have the run of my property for about 18 months because my ground was compacted and the insect community absolutely loved it. I just don't see the resemblance the way some people claim.

I haven't tried to eat any of it though. The roots smell amazing but I have been trying to grow parsnip and carrots already and that's enough carrot family for one kitchen. I am however starting to replace the QAL with the native carrot family, since I want to maintain the pollinators but I'm quickly crowding out reasonable places to let it grow. I guess we'll see how good my eye is at telling them apart when young.

I fried up some of the teeny, tiny roots, and they tasted nice, but were so tiny that harvesting enough for more than a garnish would be impractical.

The cough syrup made from the leaves is my favorite - soothing, but no other medicinal effects, and I find the taste to be a bit comforting. “Spitzwegerich Hustensaft” is the general thing to look for in German.

Mine are quite large. By fall they are carrot sized.

Found my mistake, too late to edit my previous comment: the plant I know as “Spitzwegerich” is not what you and other English speakers call Queen Anne’s Lace at all! I have no idea where I got that as the English name for Spitzwegerich.

“Spitzwegerich” (has several names in English, none of which are Queen Anne’s Lace) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_lanceolata

The leaves are the most interesting part, but I’ve eaten the heads and roots, too.

Do NOT attempt to make cough syrup from Queen Anne’s Lace greens.

Oh yeah, plantain spread everywhere with the settlers. It's quite a different plant. I think I've seen it used more as a poultice than something you consume.

The safe way when talking about edible plants is to use always and only the scientific names.

Poison hemlock stems have a purplish tinge. It’s suggested that you don’t even touch it.

Another warning: they tend to grow near water/river banks and often found near mugwort. A few years ago, we’d have visitors who came to forage mugwort and elderberries ..and one of the kids spotted hemlock and thought it was Queen Anne’s Lace. I had to deny entry after that..they bought kids and the liability wasn’t worth it. Those who forage must absolutely know how ti is which toxic/poison plants.

Yeah, poison hemlock is not to be messed with at all.

I have acute intermittent porphyria (a serious metabolic disorder) and was on a wild edible plant walk about 25 years ago on the Mendocino coast, the host pointed to something that looked like dill to my untrained eye but I didn't hear what they said about it.

So I picked some and sniffed the broken stem, then I blacked out and immediately collapsed and it took me about 20 minutes before I could talk, stand and walk again (very shakily).

It's quite a potent Poison to be sure, and now I Never pick and smell plants I don't recognize anymore (DOH!).

And I agree with jelliclesfarm that it shouldn't even be touched, as the "juice" if rubbed into the eyes unconsciously would be bad news for anyone.

I was thinking about this as well. It also looks like Queen Anne's lace lol. If anybody is going to go forage for this, please learn to ID the poisonous relatives first!

Queen Anne's Lace is wild carrot, Daucus carota, which is not poisonous.

Yes, the point is that it looks similar to water hemlock, which is extremely poisonous.

About 75% of QAL flowers also have a single black umbel in the center of the flower. Not the best eating then from what I gather, but in addition to the texture of the stalks that's a good indicator.

Yes, just to emphasize this: in this case "wild carrots" actually means just that. Carrots from the grocery store and Queen Anne's lace are two subvarieties of the same species.

But no, it doesn't look like Queen Anne's Lace. Queen Anne's lace grows in a very flat circle of small white flowers, not this dome shape made of tiny domes. Queen Anne's lace has a dark spot in the center of the disk of flowers. Queen Anne's lace does not have reddish or purplish stems. Queen Anne's lace has an incredibly distinctive smell. Do people not engage their eyeballs and brains at all?

If you don't have a background in plants and just learned about something from reading about it somewhere and decide to give it a try (might not even know there are poisonous plants that look somewhat alike), those sorts of details can be hard to notice and distinguish at first. Even as someone who has a pretty good background with plants at this point, I have occasionally been surprised at initially misidentifying something because the individual plant had an unusual presentation or was in a different growth stage than I was used to and I wasn't being super careful. I did spend some time learning about the poisonous plants in my area though and am extra careful with things that have other poisonous plants that look similar.

You are right to be cautious, but the mature plants are easily distinguished with a little care.

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