Anthriscus sylvestris

Cow parsley is in flower from April through to June. The plant is a perennial, and produces its seeds from July. The stems die back in late summer but a second growth of non-flowering stems and leaves appears in the autumn, and remains green throughout the winter months.

Cow parsley is one of the most familiar wild plants of the British countryside. Throughout the month of May, most roadsides are lined with the white flowers, seemingly impervious to traffic pollution, salt-spray and regular mowing by the highway authorities. The plant has a number of local names; hedge parsley, wild chervil and Queen Anne's lace – the latter apparently arose from the days when Queen Anne travelled in May, people believed the roadsides had been decorated especially for her. Cow parsley belongs to the family of umbellifers, plants that bear their flowers in umbrella-like clusters. The flowers are small and white, and the plant's leaves, growing on stalks from the tall, green, furrowed and slightly hairy main stem, are feathery and rather fern-like. One of the plant's names, wild chervil, suggests that it has been used as a substitute for cultivated chervil. However, care must be taken when identifying cow parsley as there are a number of similar plants that are either inedible or dangerously poisonous. The most dangerous of these is Hemlock (Conium maculatum), also an umbellifer but an altogether larger plant. Hemlock can best be identified by its smell (like old mice nests) and the purple blotches on its stems. Hemlock is deadly and it was a preparation from this plant that was given to Socrates, the Greek philosopher, as a punishment for despising the democratic government of the time.

Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [N India, Japan, Kashmir, Korea, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia; E Europe; introduced in North America].

Canada

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Cow parsley is found over all of Britain and Ireland, except for the extreme west of Ireland and north-west of Scotland. It is common in northern and central Europe but rare around the Mediterranean. It has also become naturalised across much of North America.

Distribution: S. Europe, Turkey, Caucasus, Iran, Central Asia, to Japan, India, W. Pakistan.

Anthriscus sylvestris (L.) Hoffm.:
Canada (North America)
India (Asia)
Japan (Asia)
Nepal (Asia)
Pakistan (Asia)
Russian Federation (Asia)
South Korea (Asia)
United States (North America)
South Africa (Africa & Madagascar)
China (Asia)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Plants 0.6–1.5 m high. Stem stout, glabrous or lower parts finely pubescent. Basal leaves long-petiolate; petioles 10–30 cm, sheaths ca. 4 × 1 cm; blade ovate in outline, 10–30 cm; primary pinnae long-petiolulate, ovate to elliptic-ovate, 4–12 × 2–8 cm; ultimate segments ovate or elliptic-ovate, 1–3 × 0.5–1.5 cm, serrate or toothed, abaxially sparsely pubescent. Upper cauline leaves subsessile. Umbels 2.5–8 cm wide; rays 4–15, unequal; bracteoles 5–8, ovate to lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than pedicels, pedicel apex usually surrounded by white bristles in fruit. Styles ca. 2 × as long as stylopodium. Fruit 5–10 × 1–1.5 mm. Fl. and fr. Apr–May.

Plants 1-3 m tall. Stem stout, striated, branched. Leaves 20-40 cm long, glabrous to pubescent, bipinnate; leaflets lanceolate to oval, pinnatisect; pedunc¬les 3-8 cm long. Involucre of 1 or 2 linear bracts or lacking. Rays 10-15, unequal, 2-5 cm long. Involucel of 5-6 lanceolate to oval or ovate bractlets, margins entire or ciliate, veins prominent. Petals white, outer larger. Fruit lanceolate to oblong, black, I cm long, beaked, tuberculate to hispid or bristly; furrows 1-2-vittate; vittae minute.

Forests, valley sides, grassy places on mountain slopes; near sea level to 4500 m.

Grows abundantly on roadsides, in hedgerows and along woodland rides and margins.

In Great Britain and/or Ireland:
Foodplant / saprobe
colony of Alternaria dematiaceous anamorph of Alternaria ramulosa is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris

Plant / resting place / on
adult of Callosobruchus chinensis may be found on Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / saprobe
basidiome of Calyptella capula is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / pathogen
Carrot Mottle virus (CMoV) infects and damages reddened, chlorotic and often mottled leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / pathogen
Carrot red leaf associated RNA (CtRLVaRNA) infects and damages reddened, chlorotic and often mottled leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / pathogen
Carrot Red Leaf virus (CtRLV) infects and damages reddened, chlorotic and often mottled leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / feeds on
larva of Cheilosia pagana feeds on decaying root of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / feeds on
adult of Chrysolina oricalcia feeds on pollen of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: (3-)5-6(-10)
Other: uncertain

Foodplant / saprobe
apothecium of Crocicreas cyathoideum var. cyathoideum is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 3-10

Foodplant / saprobe
effuse colony of Dendryphiella dematiaceous anamorph of Dendryphiella vinosa is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 5-9

Foodplant / saprobe
colony of Dendryphion dematiaceous anamorph of Dendryphion comosum is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 1-12

Foodplant / saprobe
sessile apothecium of Discocistella grevillei is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 4-8

Foodplant / sap sucker
Dysaphis anthrisci sucks sap of live Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: summer

Foodplant / parasite
cleistothecium of Erysiphe heraclei parasitises live Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / saprobe
colony of Fusariella dematiaceous anamorph of Fusariella hughesii is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 4-6

Foodplant / saprobe
apothecium of Hyalopeziza millepunctata is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 10-6

Foodplant / saprobe
stalked apothecium of Hymenoscyphus scutula is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 9-11

Foodplant / saprobe
sessile apothecium of Lasiobelonium mollissimum is saprobic on dead, standing stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 4-7

Foodplant / internal feeder
larva of Liparus coronatus feeds within rootstock of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / saprobe
at first immersed, later often erumpent pycnidium of Phoma coelomycetous anamorph of Metasphaeria complanata is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / pathogen
Parsnip Yellow Fleck virus (PYFV) infects and damages mottled leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / open feeder
larva of Phaedon tumidulus grazes on live leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: -late 8
Other: uncertain

Foodplant / internal feeder
larva of Phytoecia cylindrica feeds within live stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: major host/prey

Foodplant / miner
larva of Phytomyza chaerophylli mines leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / parasite
hypophyllous colony of sporangium of Plasmopara crustosa parasitises live leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / gall
embedded chlamydospore of Protomyces macrosporus causes gall of conspicuously distorted leaf (young) of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: late 10-3

Foodplant / saprobe
effuse colony of Pseudospiropes dematiaceous anamorph of Pseudospiropes rousselianus is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / parasite
aecium of Puccinia chaerophylli parasitises live petiole of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 5-6
Other: minor host/prey

Foodplant / spot causer
amphigenous colony of Ramularia hyphomycetous anamorph of Ramularia chaerophylli causes spots on live leaf of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / saprobe
effuse colony of Stachybotrys dematiaceous anamorph of Stachybotrys cylindrospora is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 5-9

Foodplant / saprobe
effuse colony of Torula dematiaceous anamorph of Torula herbarum is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris

Foodplant / saprobe
apothecium of Urceolella crispula is saprobic on dead stem of Anthriscus sylvestris
Remarks: season: 5-11

The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 10
Specimens with Barcodes: 23
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked

Common in the UK

There are no threats to this species in the UK.

There are no conservation projects in the UK for cow parsley.