Very cool post! I do, actually use Lily of the Valley in minute amounts, but not Poison Hemlock... although, it can also be used in minute amounts for extreme conditions of high blood pressure and rapid heart rate. Neither should ever be used by someone who has not had a lifetime of training in herbal medicine at a very high level.
That's interesting. my prior post on LotV mentioned that it does appear to be used in medicine, and may be prescribed in rare circumstances. The window between efficacy and toxicity seems to be extremely narrow. The same is likely occurring with hemlock, and given that the level of alkaloids are very temperamental it'd be hard to figure out dosing. One of the articles mentioned that even levels of exposure to sunlight can influence alkaloid levels, so that'd be really hard to get correct dosing-wise.
Yes, it can be dangerous, but is generally more safely used than foxglove. The digitalis of foxglove can vary widely in strength due to growing conditions and genetics. Lily of the Valley is more reliable. That said, I do not use either. I prefer Ajuga reptans for digitalis-like properties.
That seems to be the case from what I read when first writing my article. It is really interesting to think that even slight changes in how a plant is grown can alter its toxins, but that's how nature goes right? It's all very interesting!
My mom picked some wild fennel on a hike with me when I was young. Unfortunately, that encouraged me to eat quite a few fennel-looking wild plants in my youth. In retrospect, I'm lucky to have not picked any hemlock or other nasties.
If you decide to teach your kids wild edible plants be sure to very carefully, and repeatedly, stress proper identification and hazards - don't even mention it as a one-off!
It's a bit of a conundrum. We'd hope that kids learn aspects of nature by way of looking at food, but then that creates a problem when things look far too similar to what we eat and the lack of a knowledge base may lead to confusion. I believe one article I read mentioned a case of a young kid eating the root thinking it was a carrot and dying.
interesting, thanks for this article because the vegitation looks like wild carrot which ive got growing around- sheesh I better check them now.... definitely NO resemblance to wild parsnip, which is invasive and all over the place in some areas of Vermont but has a broader, symmetrically growing leaf from the stem. the stories behind certain plants are such a curious tale about history! i love it!
I haven't scavenged around to really discern these sorts of things, but it your case that may leave room for investigation. Have you had some of the wild carrots and parsnips growing around you? I haven't had such a thing here, with most wild things growing being blackberries, which are unfortunately extremely tart!
I find it so interesting, because we sort of look at things from the perspective of humans, rather than the perspective of us being animals. I think we blind ourselves in our egotistical nature into thinking that the world is shaped for us, when there are plenty of reasons why nature does what it does, and has done so for hundreds of millions of years sans any human intervention. So what looks like an unnecessarily dangerous poison to us likely serves vital, evolutionary reasons for existing.
So i make my way up to some fields in Vermont, in an area where a lot of carrot n wild parsnip grows (the latter being very unfortunate!) . I realize i cant post pics here but ill take some, add it to my next post and note it here so you can see what im talking about and how different they look
I completely agree abt the human vs animal view, when i began identifying all thats growing in this one field and how it al is inter related and possibly an animal might go chomp on something to feel better... im enjoying these nature articles.
That sounds very nice! It actually seems so foreign to consider wild vegetables, but I think that's also part of the proclivities of suburbanites to not really consider where their food comes from. We're too far removed from what nature is. It really is something to consider the behavior of animals, and to sometimes just watch and see what they do. I find birds to be very fascinating, since they all have their own quirks! But recently we've had several birds relax on our fig tree. It's nice to just look at a bird just relaxing there!
I've been meaning to comment on your own posts but I always forget to do so! For more nature Judson Carroll above seems to have a Substack on medicinal herbs, and Weedom as listed above has some interesting posts about the weeds around their farm.
I've updated my post since I conflated it with poison hemlock, and I included a picture as a frame of reference for the mature leaves, but in looking the leaves certainly look like cilantro! I'll update the post again to add that bit of context. Thanks! I couldn't think of what they looked like until I read your comment and it seemed obvious!
For differentiating from other plants I was a bit hesitant because it's hard to get just one article comparing hemlock to other plants. Even when typing in parsley to compare leaves I ended up with cow parsley, so that added some more confusion.
The hairlessness seems to be a good reference. Weedom mentions that they appear very hairless. I think the best comparison is to Queen Anne's lace, which has a very fuzzy stalk, and the leaves appear hairy on the underside as well.
When the damocles sword of food shortages started looming, one of the first things I did was to buy a few books with color photos of hundreds of edibe wild plants of my region, description of their seasons etc, because I have no idea what out there might, if not be deadly, cause me to use more toilet paper than usual, which, at the time, also seemed prohibitively costly.
Very cool post! I do, actually use Lily of the Valley in minute amounts, but not Poison Hemlock... although, it can also be used in minute amounts for extreme conditions of high blood pressure and rapid heart rate. Neither should ever be used by someone who has not had a lifetime of training in herbal medicine at a very high level.
That's interesting. my prior post on LotV mentioned that it does appear to be used in medicine, and may be prescribed in rare circumstances. The window between efficacy and toxicity seems to be extremely narrow. The same is likely occurring with hemlock, and given that the level of alkaloids are very temperamental it'd be hard to figure out dosing. One of the articles mentioned that even levels of exposure to sunlight can influence alkaloid levels, so that'd be really hard to get correct dosing-wise.
Yes, it can be dangerous, but is generally more safely used than foxglove. The digitalis of foxglove can vary widely in strength due to growing conditions and genetics. Lily of the Valley is more reliable. That said, I do not use either. I prefer Ajuga reptans for digitalis-like properties.
That seems to be the case from what I read when first writing my article. It is really interesting to think that even slight changes in how a plant is grown can alter its toxins, but that's how nature goes right? It's all very interesting!
My mom picked some wild fennel on a hike with me when I was young. Unfortunately, that encouraged me to eat quite a few fennel-looking wild plants in my youth. In retrospect, I'm lucky to have not picked any hemlock or other nasties.
If you decide to teach your kids wild edible plants be sure to very carefully, and repeatedly, stress proper identification and hazards - don't even mention it as a one-off!
It's a bit of a conundrum. We'd hope that kids learn aspects of nature by way of looking at food, but then that creates a problem when things look far too similar to what we eat and the lack of a knowledge base may lead to confusion. I believe one article I read mentioned a case of a young kid eating the root thinking it was a carrot and dying.
interesting, thanks for this article because the vegitation looks like wild carrot which ive got growing around- sheesh I better check them now.... definitely NO resemblance to wild parsnip, which is invasive and all over the place in some areas of Vermont but has a broader, symmetrically growing leaf from the stem. the stories behind certain plants are such a curious tale about history! i love it!
I haven't scavenged around to really discern these sorts of things, but it your case that may leave room for investigation. Have you had some of the wild carrots and parsnips growing around you? I haven't had such a thing here, with most wild things growing being blackberries, which are unfortunately extremely tart!
I find it so interesting, because we sort of look at things from the perspective of humans, rather than the perspective of us being animals. I think we blind ourselves in our egotistical nature into thinking that the world is shaped for us, when there are plenty of reasons why nature does what it does, and has done so for hundreds of millions of years sans any human intervention. So what looks like an unnecessarily dangerous poison to us likely serves vital, evolutionary reasons for existing.
So i make my way up to some fields in Vermont, in an area where a lot of carrot n wild parsnip grows (the latter being very unfortunate!) . I realize i cant post pics here but ill take some, add it to my next post and note it here so you can see what im talking about and how different they look
I completely agree abt the human vs animal view, when i began identifying all thats growing in this one field and how it al is inter related and possibly an animal might go chomp on something to feel better... im enjoying these nature articles.
That sounds very nice! It actually seems so foreign to consider wild vegetables, but I think that's also part of the proclivities of suburbanites to not really consider where their food comes from. We're too far removed from what nature is. It really is something to consider the behavior of animals, and to sometimes just watch and see what they do. I find birds to be very fascinating, since they all have their own quirks! But recently we've had several birds relax on our fig tree. It's nice to just look at a bird just relaxing there!
I've been meaning to comment on your own posts but I always forget to do so! For more nature Judson Carroll above seems to have a Substack on medicinal herbs, and Weedom as listed above has some interesting posts about the weeds around their farm.
Hemlock water dropwort leaves can also look quite like coriander.
There is a tell tale red staining to the stems of hemlock, though annoyingly, I have seen similar on other, non deadly plants.
One rule I was taught is regarding the stems.
Hairy, not scary.
Meaning that hairy stems equates to not being poisonous.
I've updated my post since I conflated it with poison hemlock, and I included a picture as a frame of reference for the mature leaves, but in looking the leaves certainly look like cilantro! I'll update the post again to add that bit of context. Thanks! I couldn't think of what they looked like until I read your comment and it seemed obvious!
For differentiating from other plants I was a bit hesitant because it's hard to get just one article comparing hemlock to other plants. Even when typing in parsley to compare leaves I ended up with cow parsley, so that added some more confusion.
The hairlessness seems to be a good reference. Weedom mentions that they appear very hairless. I think the best comparison is to Queen Anne's lace, which has a very fuzzy stalk, and the leaves appear hairy on the underside as well.
When the damocles sword of food shortages started looming, one of the first things I did was to buy a few books with color photos of hundreds of edibe wild plants of my region, description of their seasons etc, because I have no idea what out there might, if not be deadly, cause me to use more toilet paper than usual, which, at the time, also seemed prohibitively costly.