Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:50:50.276Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Poison-Hemlock (Conium maculatum L.)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2017

Larry W. Mitich*
Affiliation:
Department of Vegetable Crops, University of California, Davis, CA 95616

Extract

The genus Conium is comprised of two or three temperate species of biennial herbs with highly divided leaves and compound umbels of small white flowers. All parts of C. macula tum have long been recognized as being highly poisonous; it was the plant used to kill Socrates in BC 399 (Gledhill 1985; Holm et al. 1997; Hyam and Pankhurst 1995). Conium is a member of the Umbelli ferae or Apiaceae, the carrot family, which accommodates 300 genera and between 2,500 and 3,000 species.

Type
Intriguing World of Weeds
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by the Weed Science Society of America 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Allan, M., 1978. Weeds. New York: Viking Press. 191 p.Google Scholar
Case, A., 1957. Poison hemlock. Mo. Vet. 19:1819.Google Scholar
Everist, S. L., 1974. Poisonous Plants of Australia. London: Angus and Robertson. 977 p.Google Scholar
Forsyth, A. A., 1968. British Poisonous Plants. Bull. 161, 2nd ed. London: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. 171 p.Google Scholar
Frankton, C., and Mulligan, G. A. 1970. Weeds of Canada. Ottawa, ON: Queen's Printer. 217 p.Google Scholar
Fuller, T. C., and McClintock, E. 1986. Poisonous Plants of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. 433 p.Google Scholar
Georgia, A., 1914. Manual of Weeds. New York: Macmillan. 593 p.Google Scholar
Gledhill, D., 1985. The Names of Plants. 2nd ed. Cambridge, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press. 202 p.Google Scholar
Gunther, R. T., 1959. The Greek Herbal of Dioscorides. New York: Hafner. 701 p.Google Scholar
Heywood, V. H., 1993. Flowering Plants of the World. New York: Oxford University Press. 335 p.Google Scholar
Holm, L., Doll, J., Holm, E., Panchho, J., and Herberger, J. 1997. World Weeds, Natural Histories and Distribution. New York: J. Wiley. 1129 p.Google Scholar
Hyam, R., and Pankhurst, P. 1995. Plants and Their Names, A Concise Dictionary. Oxford, Great Britain: Oxford University Press. 545 p.Google Scholar
Keeler, R. F., 1978. Alkaloid taratogens from <i>Lupinus, Conium, Veratrum</i> and related genera. <i>In</i> Effects of Poisonous Plants on Livestock. New York: Academic Press. pp. 397408.Google Scholar
Kingsbury, J. M., 1964. Poisonous Plants of the United States and Canada. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 626 p.Google Scholar
Le Strange, R., 1977. A History of Herbal Plants. London: Angus and Robertson. 304 p.Google Scholar
Mabberley, J. D., 1989. The Plant-Book. Cambridge, Great Britain: Cambridge University Press. 706 p.Google Scholar
Panter, K., Keeler, R., and Baker, D. 1988. Toxicoces in livestock from the hemlocks (<i>Conium</i> and <i>Cicuta</i> spp.). J. Anim. Sci. 66:24072413.Google Scholar
Parsons, W., 1973. Noxious Weeds of Victoria, Australia. Melbourne: Inkata Press. 300 p.Google Scholar
Simpson, J. A., and Weiner, E.S.C. 1989. The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed., Volume 7. Oxford, Great Britain: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Whittet, J., 1968. Weeds. 2nd ed. Sidney, Australia: New South Wales Department of Agriculture. 487 p.Google Scholar