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Anthriscus sylvestris

Anthriscus sylvestris: Flowers
Photo by Ken Fern. High resolution version

Anthriscus sylvestris: Flowers
Photo by Ken Fern. High resolution version

Common name:	Cow Parsley	Family:	Umbelliferae
Author:	(L.)Hoffm.	Botanical references:	17, 200
Synonyms:
Known Hazards:	This plant is suspected of being poisonous to mammals[76]. It also looks very similar to some very poisonous species so great care must be taken when identifying it[12].
Range:	Most of Europe, including Britain, south and east to N. Africa and Siberia.
Habitat:	A very common plant of roadsides, hedges etc[5].
Edibility Rating (1-5):	2	Medicinal Rating (1-5):	1

Other Possible Synonyms:	From various places across the web, may not be correct. See below.
	A. silvestris[E] A. sylvestre[E] Chaerefolium silvestre[H] Chaerophyllum sylvestre[B,P]
Other Common Names:	From various places around the Web, may not be correct. See below.
	Cow Parsley [H,L], Eppich,Wilde [E], Fluitenkruid [D], Kerbel [E], Syaku [E], Wild Beaked Parsley [H], Wild Chervil [B,H,L,P], Wild Parsley [H], Woodland Chervil [H], Yabani Frenk Maydanozu [E],
Epithets:	From a Dictionary of Botanical Epithets
	sylvestris = of woods sylvestris = of woods
Systematics:	From a USDA Plants Database
	Order: Apiales. Renamed to Apiaceae -- Carrot family
Other Range Info:	From the Ethnobotany Database
	Europe Germany Turkey
Noxious, Invasive and Injurious Weeds	From USDA PLANTS database, Weeds Australia , DEFRA Injurious Weeds
	Listed as noxious/invasive for: Washington.

Physical Characteristics

Biennial growing to 1.2m by 0.6m . It is hardy to zone 7 and is not frost tender. It is in flower from April to June, and the seeds ripen from June to July. The flowers are hermaphrodite (have both male and female organs) and are pollinated by Bees. The plant is self-fertile. We rate it 2/5 for edibility and 1/5 for medicinal use.

The plant prefers light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. The plant prefers acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in full shade (deep woodland) semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It requires dry or moist soil.

Habitats and Possible Locations

Woodland, Dappled Shade, Shady Edge.

Edible Uses

Leaves Root.

The leaves are eaten raw, cooked as a potherb or used as a flavouring[5, 12, 53, 183]. They taste somewhat less than wonderful[K].
Root - cooked[183].

Medicinal Uses

Disclaimer

Tonic.

The root is soaked for several days in rice washings and then cooked with other foods as a tonic for general weakness[218].

Other Uses

Dye.

A beautiful green dye is obtained from the leaves and stem but it is not very permanent[115].

Cultivation details

Succeeds in most soils. Shade tolerant[31].
The root has been recommended for improvement by selection and breeding as an edible crop[183].
This plant looks quite similar to some poisonous species, make sure that you identify it correctly.

Propagation

Seed - sow as soon as ripe (June/July) in situ. The seed can also be sown April/May in situ. It usually germinates in 1 - 3 months at 20° c.

Suppliers

For more details of plant suppliers please see our Suppliers Page which lists many more places to look.

Web References

[H] Details of Scandanavian and European Common names in Henriette's names database
[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.
[V] Images from the Vascular Plant Image Gallery of the Texas A& M Bioinformatics Working Group.
[B] Data (Latin & Common names, other references) from the BONAP's Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.
[G] Data (Common Names, Uses, Distribution) from the USDA/ARS NPGS's GRIN taxonomic database.
[P] Data. (uses, distribution, wetland) from the USDA'a Plants database.
[HP] Links, Photos, Suppliers from Hortiplex Plant Database

References for Anthriscus silvestris (a possible synonym).

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.

References for Anthriscus sylvestre (a possible synonym).

[E] Ethnobotany Data (common names, uses, countries) from the Ethnobotany Database.

References for anthriscus sylvestris (a possible synonym).

[HP] PhotoFrom Henriette's plant pictures
[HP] PhotoFrom Henriette's plant pictures

See the PFAF Links Pages for other sources.

Also try Photos and info from the The Plants Database which has 14,000 images.

References

[K] Ken Fern
Notes from observations, tasting etc at Plants For A Future and on field trips.

[5] Mabey. R. Food for Free. Collins 1974 ISBN 0-00-219060-5
Edible wild plants found in Britain. Fairly comprehensive, very few pictures and rather optimistic on the desirability of some of the plants.

[12] Loewenfeld. C. and Back. P. Britain's Wild Larder. David and Charles ISBN 0-7153-7971-2
A handy pocket guide.

[17] Clapham, Tootin and Warburg. Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge University Press 1962
A very comprehensive flora, the standard reference book but it has no pictures.

[31] Brown. Shade Plants for Garden and Woodland.

[53] De. Bray. L. The Wild Garden.
Interesting reading.

[76] Cooper. M. and Johnson. A. Poisonous Plants in Britain and their Effects on Animals and Man. HMSO 1984 ISBN 0112425291
Concentrates mainly on the effects of poisonous plants to livestock.

[115] Johnson. C. P. The Useful Plants of Great Britain.
Written about a hundred years ago, but still a very good guide to the useful plants of Britain.

[183] Facciola. S. Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications 1990 ISBN 0-9628087-0-9
Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.

[200] Huxley. A. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. MacMillan Press 1992 ISBN 0-333-47494-5
Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.

[218] Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. Medicinal Plants of China Reference Publications, Inc. 1985 ISBN 0-917256-20-4
Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.

Readers Comments

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Plant information taken from the Plants For A Future - Species Database. Copyright (c) 1997-2003.
WEB search engine by Rich Morris - Home Page- Contact Info
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