Flora of New Zealand Series

hemlock

Erect annual or biennial, with foetid odour when crushed. Stems hollow, striate, up to 2-(3) m high, usually light green and purple spotted or blotched, sometimes tinged purplish or pink, particularly toward base. Lvs 2-4-pinnate; ultimate segments narrowly or broadly ovate to deltoid, pinnatisect or serrate, 5-40 mm long; petioles light green and purple blotched when mature; stem lvs similar to basal, but shortly petiolate and 1-3-pinnate. Umbels 1-8 cm diam.; rays 4-16; bracts c. 4-8, narrow-triangular, acuminate, reflexed; bracteoles 3-6, triangular, confined to outer side of umbellets. Fls numerous, white, c. 2 mm diam. Fr. dark brown, 2.5-3 mm long; ribs slender, light brown, often crenulate.

N.; S.: very common throughout, but only occasional on the West Coast, South Id; St.: Halfmoon Bay; Ch.

Europe, Asia, N. Africa 1872

Waste places, riverbeds, palustral, forest margins.

FL Sep-Jan.

Poisonous (Connor 1977).

Hemlock is a widespread temperate weed and is probably the commonest of all the naturalised Apiaceae in N.Z.; it is usually commonest in damp situations but is also frequent in some drier areas, e.g., in C. Otago. Hemlock is often confused with fennel although the filiform lf-segments and yellow fls of fennel easily distinguish it. The mericarps of hemlock have fine, ± equal, slender ribs (Fig. 12).

Fig. 12. Frs of Apiaceae. A Conium maculatum; B Daucus carota; C Heracleum mantegazzianum; D Pastinaca sativa. © All rights reserved. [Image: 4X3Z]