PARSLEY FAMILY UMBELLIFERAE 
COW PARSNIP 
Heracleum lanatum Michx. 
The Cow Parsnip grows in rich low woods from Newfoundland 
to Alaska, south to North Carolina and California. Its stem 
attains a height of 8 feet and a diameter of 2 inches, is hollow and 
covered with long white 
hairs. The leaves are 
very hairy, petioled, 
6-10 inches broad and 
ternately divided. The 
segments are ovate, 
heart shaped at the 
base, and toothed. An 
unpleasant odor comes 
from all parts of the 
plant. 
The great umbels of 
showy white flowers 
bloom in June. They 
may be 12 inches across 
and have 8-30 rays or 
branches, in turn sup- 
porting the many pedi- 
cels. The corollas are 
large, white, and with 
the petals of the outer 
flowers of each umbel- 
let enlarged and 
notched. The fruits are oval, nearly one-half inch long and finely 
hairy. 
The Cowbane, Oxypolis rigidior (L.) Coult. & Rose, is a swamp 
plant whose smooth slender stems rise 2-6 feet from tuberous roots. 
The leaves are alternate and pinnately compound, the lower being 
about 1 foot long, with commonly 9 narrow, oblong or lanceolate 
leaflets that have widely spaced teeth at the margins. The umbel 
is 2-4 inches broad, with 7-25 rays 1-4 inches long. The umbellets 
are one-half to 1 inch in diameter, crowned with white flowers 
having the usual incurved petals. The fruits are oval, smooth and 
flattened on the sides, and about one-quarter inch long. 
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