UMBELLIFERAE (PARSLEY FAMILY) 3805 
(Thaspium barbindde), also yellow-flowered, but larger, its ternately 
compound leaves broader and more coarsely toothed, and 
having tiny tufts of fine hair at each joint. 
Means of control 
; Frequent close cutting before seed development, using dry salt 
in order to retard new growth. 
WILD PARSNIP 
Pastindca sativa, L. 
Other English names: Field Parsnip, Madnep, Tank. 
Introduced. Biennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to August. 
Seed-time: August to October. 
Range: All parts of the United States and Canada. 
Habitat: Roadsides and waste places. 
“ Pastus”’ means food, and, as its name indicates, this is the 
garden Parsnip, long ago “gone to the bad,” for its thick, white, 
fleshy root is no longer a food but a poison, even after it has been 
cooked —a fact which is every year demonstrated by several 
deaths. 
Crown leaves of the first year large, often eighteen inches in 
length, with long, flattened, and grooved petioles: pinnate, the 
segments thin, sessile, ovate, coarsely and sharply toothed, often 
cut-lobed. Fruiting stem two to four feet tall, hollow, grooved, 
smooth, its leaves much smaller and clasping. Umbel compound, 
without involucre or involucels, the flowers very many, small, and 
yellow. Carpels nearly one fourth of an inch long, broadly oval, 
much flattened, surrounded by a thin, corky ridge which helps 
them to float on water or to be carried by the wind. This weed, 
like the Wild Carrot, serves as host to the fungus which is so inju- , 
rious to celery, and will infect that plant when it grows near it. 
Means of control 
Hand-pulling when the ground is soft in spring. Spudding or 
hoe-cutting the root leaves from their crowns, an operation best 
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