Surrey, United Kingdom
This green umbellifer grows somewhere along most motorways can someone i.d it for me and with its carrot like tuber can i regrow it or should i?
- 16 Jun, 2019
Answers
There are many umbelifera's in the uk. This looks more like the wild Common parsnip [Pastinaca sativa]. It's leaves smell of carrots bizarrely.
as Bathgate says it is in fact a biennial and flowers, sets seeds and dies.
personally unless you are putting it in a wild flower area I wouldn't grow it in a garden.
16 Jun, 2019
It's not what we call Queen Anne's Lace in GB - that has white flowers. Its hard to see the leaves but this might be
Pepper Saxifrage, Silum silaus. The umbellifers are a huge family and the devil's in the detail. Not many have yellow flowers though so that cuts it doen a bit. If you send a closeup of the back of the flowers and a clearer pic of the leaves I'll have another try.
16 Jun, 2019
I think Queen Anne's Lace has white flowers. Could be wild parsnip maybe?
16 Jun, 2019
Also known a poison parsnip, it is a member of the carrot/parsley family. Like many other members of the carrot family, wild parsnip produces sap containing chemicals that can cause human skin to react to sunlight. The result is intense burns, rashes or blisters that often result in long-term scarring.
https://www.durhamregion.com/news-story/5742725-wild-parsnip-cow-parsnip-giant-hogweed-can-you-identify-them-and-which-is-most-toxic-/
16 Jun, 2019
Cow parsnip is a different plant, common names in the uk are keck [that's what I knew it as a child up in the Durham area] and hogweed. it's leaves are much broader etc. I do have that in the garden. flowers are an off white colour.
Giant hogweed, a garden escapee thanks to Victorian plant hunters bringing it back from Asia is the one with the worst sap for blistering. Not difficult to mistake as it grows over 6ft tall.
all the seeds of this group are dispersed by wind as the seeds are slightly winged. they are often found along rail tracks and roads side vergers as a result.
going by the colour of the flowers and the leaf it is common parsnip a native wild flower in the UK.
17 Jun, 2019
Thank you seaburngirl you got it absolutely correct Pastinaca sativa and it is quite posionous but very beautiful it can be used to set off other plants as does euphorbia if mixed in drifts and with other plants makes this a knock-out plant can be bought as seed from Clifton's
17 Jun, 2019
This is a parsnip so it can be eaten it's root can be eaten and it has spread by human development so it's not exactly wild it's the juice of the top half you have to be careful with
17 Jun, 2019
Usually only eaten during the first year. The second year it bolts (flowers) and the quality of the root goes south. It turns yucky and shrinks down to nothing as it expends all it's energy making seeds.
This is what comes up with the odd carrot or parsnip that was never harvested the previous year. It draws loads of bees, pollinators & butterflies - great subject matter if you like photography like I do. lol .
17 Jun, 2019
It is related to carrot. Often called Queen Ann's Lace and host to the Black Swallowtail Butterfly - a magnificent butterfly. Unfortunately, they don't transplant very well. So you are better off planting seeds. Carrots are actually biennial plants and often grown as ornamental plants. Just leaves the first year as it develops the long tap root. That's when we normally harvest them. These flat top lacey flower caps the 2nd year and the 'carrot' root shrinks down to nothing - all the energy is spent creating seeds. The plant dies.
16 Jun, 2019