Irish wildflowers BSBI map

Fool's Parsley, Aethusa cynapium, Peirsil amaide
Photographs: near Baltimore, Co. Cork

Fool's Parsley
Aethusa cynapium
Peirsil amaide
Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: April-October. Annual / biennial. Possibly introduced

Umbels of white flowers with unequal petals and distinctive bracteoles. Ridged fruit. The dark-green leaves are triangular, 2 or 3 times pinnate with deeply pinnate lanceolate leaflets. A hairless plant with finely ridged, branched and leafy hollow stems. Height 20-80cm. Poisonous.

Grows on waste and cultivated ground and on roadsides. Found throughout Ireland but most frequent in the south and east.

Fool's Parsley, Aethusa cynapium, Peirsil amaide

Fool's Parsley, Aethusa cynapium, Peirsil amaide
Fool's Parsley, Aethusa cynapium, Peirsil amaide

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