⚠︎🔥︎ DO NOT BURN 🔥︎⚠︎Avoid all contact with ░ smoke.

  • If contact withsmoke, seek ⚕︎ medical attention with all due speed.
⚠︎ ⛽︎✂︎ DO NOT USE HEDGECLIPPERS ✂︎⛽︎ ⚠︎.  Neither petrol/​gasoline nor electric:

  • I met a guy whose petrol/​gasoline hedgeclippers went through poison ivy before he noticed — plant fragments hit his 🫁 lungs, the poison entered his bloodstream, hitting all body organs horribly, and putting him under ⚕︎ medical care for months.
  • Perhaps a 😷 P100 HEPA respirator/​filter mask would have helped, but I suggest maximum PPE and ✂︎ hand tools, nice and slow!
⚠︎✋︎☠︎ DO NOT TOUCH ☠︎✋︎⚠︎. To avoid skin rash and irritation phyto­photo­dermat­itis PPD, due to contact with photo­toxic furano­coumarins, leading to 💥︎ ¿permanent damage, dis­fig­ure­ment and blindness?, avoid contact with all parts of this plant [1] with your 🖐 skin, 👕︎ clothing, 👟︎ shoes and 🐕︎ pets:

  • If contact with anything, seek ⚕︎ professional medical advice with all due speed.  This author has heard of chemical causing permanent dis­fig­ure­ment of skin if the victim fails to stay out of the sun for or 6 years due to its photo­toxic effect, causing phyto­photo­derma­titis PPD.  If contact with the eyes, I read it can cause blindness.  Seek someone with more knowledge than me.  Now.
  • Don't delay.  The toxins (furano­coumarins) are activated by ☀︎ UV light, and ☀︎ UV gets you outdoors, even in the ⛱ shade.

Also called and punctuated (in various combinations) 🐄︎ American cowparsnip, common cow-parsnip and cow parsnip,  and sometimes called Heracleum lanatum.

Although do not confuse with unrelated similar-named wild parsnip  Pastinaca sativa, and sister-species ⚠︎✋︎☠︎ giant 🐖︎ hogweed  Heracleum mantegazzianum ☠︎✋︎⚠︎ which is also sometimes called wild parsnip.   Cowparsnip:  A common lookalike to giant hogweed.

This and the sister-species are part of 🐖︎ hogweed / 🐄︎ cow parsnip  genus Heracleum in 🥕︎ carrot/celery/parsley  family Apiaceae.

Native to all of 🇨🇦 Canada except Nunavut, and all of 🇺🇸 USA except for Hawai'i and the Gulf Coast.   🗺 Map by county (🇺🇸 USA-48) (color key).

Uses by native peoples
(Ethnobotany database)

Heracleum hosts caterpillars of 7 species
of butterflies and moths, in some areas.
  Bloom dates.  Adobe Acrobat Reader file (page 58)

Learn more about ⚠︎✋︎☠︎ common 🐄︎ cowparsnip ☠︎✋︎⚠︎ Heracleum maximum

🔍︎ 🔍︎ images Discover Life Encyclopedia of Life Michigan Flora (Minnesota) Wildflower Garden Minnesota Wildflowers USDA PLANTS db USFS Wikipedia