Sium latifolium
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Sium latifolium is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common names great water-parsnip, greater water-parsnip,{{GRIN | access-date = 12 January 2018}} and wideleaf waterparsnip.[http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=SILA22 Sium latifolium.] USDA PLANTS. It is native to much of Europe, Kazakhstan, and Siberia.
This plant grows in wet habitat such as swamps and lakeshores, sometimes in the water. It is a perennial herb with a hollow, grooved stem up to 2 meters tall. The herbage is green and hairless. The leaves are up to 30 centimeters long with blades borne on hollow petioles that clasp the stem at their bases. The inflorescence is an umbel of white flowers.Forbes, R. [http://www.habitas.org.uk/priority/species.asp?item=3685 Sium latifolium – greater water-parsnip.] Northern Ireland Priority Species. National Museums Northern Ireland.
When eaten by dairy cows, the plant tends to imbue their milk with an unpleasant taste.
Toxicity/edibility
The rootstock is acrid and poisonous, but the leaves have been cooked and eaten as a vegetable in Italy and the ripe seeds - which are aromatic due to their limonene content - have been used (in small quantities) as a spice or seasoning in Scandinavian cuisine.Sturtevant, E.L. Sturtevant's Notes on Edible Plants, pub. J.P. Lyon Company Albany 1919 for State of New York Dept of Agriculture, reissued ed. U.P Hedrick as Sturtevant's Edible Plants by Dover Publications, inc. New York 1972.
References
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Category:Plants described in 1753
Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus
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