Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Cicuta douglasii (DC.) Coult. & Rose
- Family: Carrot (Umbelliferae)
- Flowering: June-September
- Field Marks: This species has large, much divided, alternate leaves and large umbels of white flowers. The smooth fruits are ovoid to nearly spherical.
- Habitat: Swamps, wet roadside ditches.
- Habit: Stout perennial herb with an enlarged rootstock.
- Stems: Upright, stout, branched, up to 6 feet tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Alternate, much divided, sometimes at least 3-pinnate, the leaflets narrowly lanceolate, up to 4 inches long, toothed or even shallowly lobed, smooth.
- Flowers: Many borne in large umbels, the umbels up to 4 inches across; each umbel sometimes subtended by 1 or more bracts.
- Sepals: 5, green, very tiny.
- Petals: 5, white, free from each other, about 1/10 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Ovoid or nearly spherical, up to 1/6 inch long, smooth but with low ribs.
- Notes: All parts of this plant are poisonous if eaten.
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