The Merry Month of May Hedgerow Self Care with Cow Parsley

Cow Parsley or Queen Anne's Lace is the delicate white flowers that form a uneven umbrella shape that you will see nodding in the breeze at the roadsides. It is part of the wild Carrot family, and can easily be mistaken for 'Wild Carrot' which is ok, Giants Hogweed which will cause phototoxicity rashes and other unpleasant sideeffects and Water Dropwort/Hemlock which is what poisoned Socrates. They do actually have slightly different leaves and the flower formations are different. I noticed the Hemlock looks like little balls of flowers as its developing making me think that its why its called dropwort. It also likes the wet areas. For this reason many will avoid selecting Cow Parsely for herbal use.