Rough chervil

Chaerophyllum temulum, the rough chervil, is a biennial or short-lived perennial herb of the family Apiaceae growing 30 to 100 cm tall. The solid, rough, bristly-hairy stems are distinctly swollen below the nodes and conspicuously spotted or flushed with purple. The leaves are dark green, two to three times pinnately divided into lobed, somewhat hairy segments. The small white flowers are borne in compound umbels that nod before opening, lacking proper upper bracts but with fringed bracteoles beneath each cluster; the fruit is a narrow, ridged, elongate mericarp. It flowers in early summer. Native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia and naturalised in North America, rough chervil grows in hedgerows, woodland margins, shady banks and roadsides. The plant is poisonous, containing toxic compounds, and can be confused with edible umbellifers.