Cow parsnip

Heracleum lanatum

Cow Parsnip is a native erect perennial forb growing from 3 to 8 feet high. The stout stem is ridged, hollow and usually fuzzy. Cow Parsnip is a plant of moist areas and moist roadsides, you will find in on marsh edges, stream sides, damp open meadows. It grows from a stout taproot and associated fibrous roots. It tolerates partial shade, but not permanently wet soils. The flowers are 5-parted with the 5 white petals deeply notched to appear as 10 petals. Petal tips are acute to rounded and the petal margins incurved. At the stem the stalk of the leaf enlarges to a clasping sheath. The leaves have soft hairs and are 3-parted with toothed or palmate leaflets. Each leaflet has a short hairy stalk. Lower leaves can be up to 2 feet wide and always have palmate leaflets. The most upper stem leaves may be simply 3-lobed. Some say the plant has a foul odor, others classify it as simply pungent.