Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Conium maculatum
Common name
Hemlock
Family
Apiaceae
Where found
Forest margins, grassy areas, disturbed sites, roadsides, stream banks, and other moist sites. Widespread.
Notes
Introduced biennial herb to 3 m tall. Stems hairless, often with fine lengthwise grooves, spotted reddish brown, pinkish, or purple. Stems and leaves acrid- or mouse-smelling when rubbed or damaged. Leaves alternating up the stems, 10-50 cm long, to 400 mm wide, compound, leaflets 1-2 cm long, fern-like, hairless, margins coarsely to finely toothed, leaf stalks to 60 cm long, longitudinally furrowed, purple-flecked, with a broad sheathing base. Flowers in clusters 30-70 mm in diameter. Individual flowers 2-4 mm in diameter with 5 white petals. 'Seeds' have no spines. Flowers Spring to Summer. Highly poisonous.
General Biosecurity Duty all NSW. Noxious weed Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Conium~maculatum (accessed 7 January, 2021)
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