Country diary: The carrot cousin that's pretty but deadly | Jim Perrin

Harlech, Gwynedd: At the boundary of a wood I find some hemlock water dropwort, of which every part is poisonousThe path climbs slate steps before slanting left through oakwoods alive with the song of warblers. Green caterpillars wriggle in flycatchers' bills (less effort to catch than flies, I suppose). Clouds of midges dance in shafts of sunlight. A long climbing traverse with views of Yr Wyddfa lures you on, takes you to the wood's boundary. I lean against a wall, look around, and down to my right in a moist ditch see a plant of which all who venture into the Welsh countryside should be very wary.It's an umbellifer, less tall than hogweed. I check out crucial detail. White flower-clusters are already present. Stems are hairless and hollow, lacking purple blotches low down that would identify this specimen as Conium maculatum (hemlock). It's Oenanthe crocata - hemlock water dropwort, deadliest of all British plants, every part of it very poisonous. A member of the carrot family, it has pale, tuberous roots - dead man's finger. Foragers beware! Continue reading...