Cow Parsnip.Heracleum lanatum.
Found in moist rich grounds, often on the edge of shade, in blossom in June.
The stalk grows very tall, sometimes 7 or 8 feet high; it is large, round, and grooved—though not deeply so; it is hollow, with a strong parsnip smell; and grass-green in color.
The leaf is compound, in three divisions, and large, the lower leaves being sometimes a foot or more in length; each leaflet is more or less deeply lobed, and sharply notched on the edge, and set on a short foot-stem; the ribs are large, the upper surface almost smooth, while the lower surface is soft and woolly; coarse in texture, and of a strong dark green color. The main foot-stem of the leaf, widens into a leafy membrane that partly clasps the stalk. The few large leaves are alternate.
The flower is small, and 5-petalled, the petals heart-shaped, or deeply notched; the outer flowers are larger than the inner ones, and their petals are quite unequal in size. In color white. They grow in wide spreading, flat-topped clusters, sometimes 10 or 12 inches across.
On close approach the Cow Parsnip appears coarse in general make-up; seen from a distance however it looks a plant of splendid swing and unbounded vigor, a veritable Hercules of the fields!