Hemlock water dropwort

[Meowy Catkin]

This is one of the poisonous plants that I regularly have to check the paddocks for, especially down by the stream as it likes wet ground best. Down the road from us they have some yurts that they rent out to holiday makers. Well one of the holiday makers has just come out of hospital having been in there for four days. They went foraging while on a walk and thought that the Hemlock Water Dropwort's parsnip like roots were edible...

We do have a footpath through the land and I don't think they dug up the dropwort here as I dig up any I see and the path doesn't run down by the stream, but it shows just how careful you need to be. It's not just the horses that would mistakenly eat things.

 

[rabatsa]

Any book on foraging gives details on what to look for with hemlock. One reason you should never forage and eat what you do not know.

 

[HappyHollyDays]

They were very lucky then because the roots are the most poisonous part of the plant which is why if you dig it up you have to be meticulous about getting 100% of it out of the ground and wear gloves when handling it.

 

[ester]

who does that and thinks it's a good idea?!

 

[Meowy Catkin]

The bleddy stuff stinks too. No idea what they were thinking but thankfully they have got away with it.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

They were blooming lucky! And stupid too.
I have a small area by next doors natural pond that I have to check on, always a small bit there each year. I must miss a tiny bit of root when I remove, get.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Quite apart from anything else, don't they realise that they should ask permission before removing items from other people's land?

It sounds as if they have been very lucky!

 

[ycbm]

They missed the Countryfile article about hemlock root a month or so back then!
.

 

[PurBee]

who does that and thinks it's a good idea?!

me! ?? But i know what im looking for!

Nature always has a poisonous lookalike....its important to identify and become really familiar with that aswell as the safe plant before venturing to eat anything. It horrifies me that new to foraging people go wandering with an i.d book in hand and think theyve got dinner sorted. It took years of collecting plants, mushrooms etc , taking them home, magnifying tools and a selection of books, relaying with other experts, before even considering eating what i’d collected.

Im so glad the yurters survived....nasty way to go is poisonous plant poisoning, especially mushrooms!

 

[PurBee]

The bleddy stuff stinks too. No idea what they were thinking but thankfully they have got away with it.

normally if we’re put off by the smell of a food, its a good indication we shouldnt eat it. Hemlock in hay stinks so much you smell it before even seeing it. Horrid stench..

 

[ester]

Yes I should have added a 'unless you clearly know what you are doing' which they clearly didn't . I forage a few bits for the guinea pigs (then look ridiculous with it all in my back cycling top pocket) but even then only what I am very sure about and areas I know don't get sprayed etc!

 

[Gloi]

Hardly used to see any but it's rampant in ditches round here these days

 

[PurBee]

Yes I should have added a 'unless you clearly know what you are doing' which they clearly didn't . I forage a few bits for the guinea pigs (then look ridiculous with it all in my back cycling top pocket) but even then only what I am very sure about and areas I know don't get sprayed etc!

I can imagine everyone thinking “why on earth has she got half the countryside poking out of her?” ?

Ive read stories from mycologists and video accounts by themselves of the times even they got fooled and poisoned. Severe enough for hospitalisation, dialysis etc. ...to only just scraaaaape through! That scared me enough to never ever ‘dabble’.
There’s some mushrooms which you can only tell apart via spore size/shape using a microscope, they can look that similar in all ways, even experts are sometimes fooled ?

 

[Lexi_]

I’ve literally just read a crime novel where this was how they murdered people!

(Murder Included by Joanna Cannan if anyone is interested. Has some nice horses in it, as you might expect, given her background.)

 

[Keith_Beef]

The foraging fashion has caught on over here, too. I heard on the wireless least week about an elderly woman who died after eating foxglove thinking it was borage.

 

[PapaverFollis]

Foxglove and borage look nothing alike.

A mistake with the apiaceae is at least vaguely understandable. Apart from, don't be over-confident with the apiaceae ever. But foxglove and borage is ridiculous. How do these people tell the difference between an apple and a pear? Or manage to put their underpants on the right way around?

It's the "is this your collie?" phenomenon again though isn't it?

 

[Keith_Beef]

Foxglove and borage look nothing alike.

A mistake with the apiaceae is at least vaguely understandable. Apart from, don't be over-confident with the apiaceae ever. But foxglove and borage is ridiculous. How do these people tell the difference between an apple and a pear? Or manage to put their underpants on the right way around?

It's the "is this your collie?" phenomenon again though isn't it?

As I heard it on the wireless, that the woman mistook "digitale" (foxglove) for "consoude" (I wrote borage, but comfrey might be better) at a time of year when there were no flowers...

My mother was very, very cautious and told me that everything in the wild was poisonous except for blackberries, bilberries, apples and plums. I discovered for myself redcurrants and rhubarb in abandoned allotments.