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Deadly Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) Might be Growing Near You
I watched a movie on Netflix in which the wife gets fed up with her vigorous trapper husband, and so poisons him with hemlock tea. He dies badly after rescuing her from certain death. Depressing movie.
Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is deadly toxic with NO ANTIDOTE. Death comes from asphyxiation as the ability to breath ceases. It can kill animals or people, and merely touching it can cause problems.
Handle only with extreme care, and protective gear, because while fatality probably requires ingestion, touch alone can get some toxin into the body via the skin. Similarly, burning it and breathing the smoke would be bad news. Composting it does not destroy the toxin, and the root is particularly deadly.
I had no idea this invasive plant grows wild all over the place. Someone is even selling seeds on ebay. Why is that allowed, and who would buy such seeds, let alone plant them?
I chanced across some growing right across from a local school, about six feet from the trail. Given that it could kill a horse let alone a child, I reported it to the town and I am hoping they can safely remove it.
How to Identify and Remove Poison Hemlock
Below, I’m no botanist, but the purple blotches on the stem seem to cleanly distinguish it from its perilous cousin western water hemlock (Cicuta douglasii), which has purple stripes (not blotches).
The plant grows very tall—here it is about 9 feet (3 meters) tall.
