Water Hemlock - Most Violently Toxic Plant in North America
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Seizures, uncontrollable bowel movements, and death.
These are just a few of the many symptoms you might experience if you were to accidentally consume water hemlock (Cicuta spp.), one of North America's most deadly plants, and quite likely its most violently toxic.
Unfortunately, to the untrained eye, it can easily be confused for several other much more harmless, and even edible plants in the carrot family, which is why beginner foraging advice often includes the recommendation to avoid most wild carrot family plants at first.
Here, we'll talk about water hemlock's identification, toxicity, and even possible uses (not for trying at home!).
Plants in this video:
Water Hemlock (Cicuta spp.*)
Family: Apiaceae (Carrot Family)
Other Names: cowbane, poison parsnip, beaver poison, false parsley, snakeweed, children's-bane, musquach-poison, muskrat weed, suicide root (Iriquois), cicutaire (French), ciguë aquatique (Fr), ciguë vireuse (Fr), cicuta de agua (Spanish), wasserschierlinge (German), Вёх ядови́тый (Russian), sprängört (Swedish), szalej jadowity (Polish), myrkkykeiso (Finnish), waterscheerling (Dutch), віха́ отруйна (Ukrainian), 毒芹 (Chinese)
*The four currently recognized species are Cicuta maculata, C. bulbifera, C. douglasii, and C. virosa.
Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum)
Family: Apiaceae (Carrot Family)
Credits:
Music: 'The Cascades' by Scott Joplin, played by Sam
Images:
Map of Klamath Ancestral Lands: Toz Soto, Klamath Resource Information System
Socrates: Ben Crowe, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Hand Holding Hemlock: Aaron Volkening, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Arracacha: Dick Culbert, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Chervil: rainerburkard, iNaturalist, CC-BY 2.0
Pignut: Francesco Gasparetti, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Skirret: Shutterstock
Poison Hemlock 1: Paige Filler, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Poison Hemlock 2: Under the same moon, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
Gairdners Yampah: Andrey Zharkikh, flickr.com, CC-BY 2.0
"Water Hemlock is not for everyone..." 🤣
Thanks
Thank you for the educational videos!
Fascinating, humorous, and educational! Just how I like my UA-cam videos
Nice to see a video on something I’ve read about in the past
Another thought, I was wondering, might you know how medical professionals would treat someone suffering water hemlock poisoning? I feel like I’ve only heard of antivenoms for animals
Great question! Some plant toxins do have specific antidotes (if it's antibody-derived like an antivenom, the more specific term would be antitoxin), but as far as I've read there is no known antidote for cicutoxin. So instead, if a person was suffering water hemlock poisoning, they would treat the symptoms, mainly with anti-seizure medications (such as diazepam and phenobarbital) and muscle relaxants, and then provide breathing support. If kidney failure is involved, forced diuresis (forcing the body to produce more urine) and haemodialysis (artifiically filtering the blood for the kidneys) can also be used. I also saw mention of stomach pumping and ingesting activated charcoal given as treatments, the latter particularly if the person hasn't shown any symptoms yet.
This was so informative and helpful. As someone who’s just become interested in foraging I read that valerian grows in my area and when trying to read how to identify it I came across something saying water hemlock looks similar and to be careful.. so I was looking at how to know if something is water hemlock, and that’s how I came across your video.. the way you’ve shown with arrows and everything how to identify the leaves and all is so helpful.
Thanks! I'm glad to know this was helpful. The carrot family can be a tricky bunch to figure out!
Love this plant, it's amazing for its medicinal properties.
0:10 I see what you did there
They have edible relative called Skirret that makes long edible tubers. You should look it up.
Oh hey, it isn't often I encounter someone else who's heard of skirret! I've wanted to try growing them for a while, but the sellers always seem to be out of stock at just the moment I try to order. Have you tried them? I'm curious what they taste like.
@@AmblingwithSam I bought a plant but it died never tried
Ah bummer. That is how it goes sometimes.