Hemlock

Conium maculatum

Hemlock Poison Parsley Habitat and cultivation

Hemlock - tall biennial similar to cow parsley and wild chervil, and growing to 2m (6ft) from a forked, pale yellow root. The stout, bright green stem is smooth and blotched with purple or deep red, and the delicate, dark green leaves are feathery and grouped in threes. The leaves have an unpleasant, 'mousy' smell when bruised. From mid-summer to mid-autumn, umbels of small white, lacy flowers appear, followed by seeds (fruits) that resemble caraway.

Conium, hemlock's botanical name, is derived from a Greek verb that means to whirl around. This refers to the vertigo that is one of the characteristic symptoms of hemlock poisoning. The entire plant contains a deadly poisonous juice that has proved fatal in cases where the leaves were mistaken for wild parsley or the root for wild parsnip. The ancient Greeks were well acquainted with the effects of hemlock juice. Reputed to be the principal ingredient in the poisoned brew that Socrates was forced to swallow, hemlock was a favorite drink of suicides, and was also administered to criminals who were condemned to death on the orders of the state of Athens. This sinister plant was held to be a favorite of witches who gathered it for their noxious brews, and in Russian and German folklore it was known as the devil's plant.

Despite its poisonous nature and 'loathsome smell', hemlock was first used medicinally by Greek and Arabian physicians. Dioscorides prescribed the herb for the external treatment of herpes, and a poultice was once applied to tumors. The poisons were said to dissipate on cutting and drying, and Culpeper recommended the roasted and wrapped root to ease the pain and swelling of gout. Hemlock was investigated medicinally in the latter part of the eighteenth century and continued to be administered to cancerous swellings and ulcers. In the early part of this century, hemlock was listed in the British, Indian and North American Pharmacopeias as a sedative and antispasmodic medication, and prescribed for epilepsy and other convulsive diseases. Hemlock was also considered an effective antidote to strychnine poisoning. Today, hemlock is no longer employed medicinally due to the considerable variation in the strength of the herb, and the unpredictability of its effect.

All parts of the fresh plant are intensely poisonous.

HABITAT AND CULTIVATION

Hemlock is native to southern and central Europe and widespread in temperate zones. Hemlock is common in damp hedgerows, stream banks, moist, rough pastureland and on waste ground.