''Cicuta maculata'' is a highly poisonous species of flowering plant in the
carrot family
Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plan ...
known by several common names, including spotted water hemlock, spotted parsley, spotted cowbane, and the suicide root by the
Iroquois. It is native to nearly all of North America, from northern Canada to southern Mexico.
Description
''Cicuta maculata'' is a
rhizomatous perennial herb producing a hollow erect stem that can reach a height of . The long
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are made up of several lance-shaped, pointed, serrated leaflets. Each shiny green leaflet is long and the entire leaf may be up to long. The
inflorescence of white flowers is similar in appearance to other species in the carrot family. It is a compound
umbel with many clusters of flowers. The dry tan-brown fruit is a few millimeters long.
The plant prefers wet habitats, such as wet meadows, roadside ditches, pond margins, open marshes, and freshwater swamps.
Flowering is from May to September.
The poisonous plant is occasionally mistaken for
parsnips, due to its clusters of white
tuberous roots.
Toxicity
The confusion with parsnips can be fatal as ''C. maculata'' is extremely poisonous. It is considered to be North America's most toxic plant.
Cicuta is fatal when swallowed, causing violent and painful
convulsion
A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is sometimes used as a s ...
s. Though a number of people have died from water hemlock poisoning over the centuries,
livestock have long been the worst affected (hence the name "cowbane"), with ingestion of the plant causing death in as little as 15 minutes.
The chief poison is
cicutoxin
Cicutoxin is a naturally-occurring poisonous chemical compound produced by several plants from the family Apiaceae including water hemlock (''Cicuta'' species) and water dropwort (''Oenanthe crocata''). The compound contains polyene, polyyne ...
, an unsaturated aliphatic alcohol that is most concentrated in the roots. Upon human consumption,
nausea,
vomiting, and tremors occur within 30–60 minutes, followed by severe
cramps, projectile vomiting, and convulsions. Occasional long-term effects include
retrograde amnesia.
Ingestion of water hemlock in any quantity can result in death or permanent damage to the
central nervous system.
See also
*''
Conium maculatum
''Conium maculatum'', colloquially known as hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. A hardy plant capable of living in a ...
''
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentPhoto gallery*
*
*
{{Taxonbar, from=Q5119480
Apioideae
Flora of North America
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
Poisonous plants