Pastinaca sativa L.
wild parsnip
Stout, erect biennial, with a thick white taproot. Stems puberulent, hollow, grooved, striate, up to 150-(200) cm high. Basal lvs puberulent, particularly below, usually 1-pinnate, the first pair of leaflets often, and other pairs sometimes, again divided, petiolate; leaflets in c. 5-10 pairs, ovate to lanceolate, pinnately lobed and coarsely serrate, up to 15 cm long, usually sessile, sometimes shortly petiolulate; stem lvs similar to basal, but reduced with fewer, shorter leaflets. Umbel 3-19 cm diam.; rays 7-30; bracts and bracteoles 0-2, linear, 2-4 mm long; fls numerous, yellow, 1-2 mm diam. Fr. glabrous, broadly elliptic to orbicular, 4-6 mm long; vittae slender, prominent, 4 dorsal, 2 commissural.
N.: locally common throughout; S.: locally common in Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago, but not recorded from Westland or Southland; St.: Halfmoon Bay; K., Ch.
Europe 1867
Waste places, usually wet situations such as river or ditch edges.
FL Oct-May.
Poisonous (Connor 1977).
The pinnate lvs, yellow fls, and broad dorsally flattened frs (Fig. 12) distinguish this sp. The cultivated parsnip is a selected form of the same sp., in fact the root of wild parsnip is also edible.
