Aethusa cynapium (L) Fool's Parsley
NOMENCLATURE
Aethusa: from Greek : to burn : ref. to shiny foliage.
cynapium: from Greek : cyn : dog & : apium : celery.
Tabernaemontanus.
OTHER NAMES: lesser hemlock, dog parsley, snakes food. Gleisse
from gleissen to glitter, (Germany). Cow parsley, dog’s poison;
lace curtains, pig dock, (Som). Devil wand, (Dor). False parsley, (Shrop).
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: robust. glabourous annual, erect. Th. HEIGHT: 5-120 cm.
STATUS : Poisonous. STEMS: hollow, finely striate, glaucous.
UMBELS: 2-6 mm diam. Terminal and leaf opposed. Slightly domed. Rays (4)10-20 ;
0.5-3cm. antrorsely serrulate on the angles. Peduncle > than rays. All hermaphrodite.
LEAVES: 2-3 pinnate, oval to elliptical, lower withering at flowering. Lobes 5-15mm,
pinnatifid, lanceolate to ovate in outline, acute, antrorsely scabrid margins. Petiole
short, sheathing. Cotyledons contracted into petiole.
BRACTS: absent. Bracteoles pendent, on outer side of partial umbels, subulate 3-5, linear.
FLOWERS: white. 2mm. Calyx teeth 0 or small. 5 even petals, unequal with notched
inflexed apex. Styles form stylopodium. Fl. 7-8.
FRUIT: 2 parted, 3-4mm, broadly ovoid, compressed dorsally. Commisure broad. Mericarps:
prominent heel ridge, very broad, lateral also. Carpophore present. Vittae solitary in furrows.
Pedicels slender. Styles as long as & closely appressed to stylopodium. Stigma capitate. 2n=20.
HABITAT: arable & waste land, gardens, farms,open woods,
roadsides, river banks at low altitudes.
DISTRIBUTION: native. Common. S. & S.W. Britain, coastal in
Scotland. Introduced to N. America & Algeria.
SUBSPECIES : ‘Subsp. agrestis. Subsp. cynapium.
ACTIVE INGREDIENTS: onilne and cynopine, aethitsine, ethusanol. toxicity due
to organic compounds polyines or polyacetylenes.
POISONING PRINCIPLES
Same as Hemlock, but milder. State of. excitement on ingestion, then depression, paralysis of
skeletal muscles, vomiting, diarrhoea, pupils dilated, death by suffocation, does not affect the
heart. Roots mistaken for radish, leaves for Parsley.
HISTORICAL MEDICINAL USES
As stomachic, sedative, gastro intestinal troubles in children, diarrhoea, cholera infantum
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