Cow Parsley - Anthriscus sylvestris

Medium to tall, rather robust plant to 1.5 metres. Leaves dull green 3 pinnate. Flowers white 3 to 4 mm in umbels with 4 to 15 rays, without lower bracts.

Similar to many other medium-sized white flowered umbellifers with ferny divided leaves

The dominant umbellifer of roadside hedges. Stems hollow; fruits ridged towards the top (not spiny, bristly or warty) and elongated (c.3 times longer than wide).  Bracteoles and sometimes bracts present.

Rough grassy habitats, hedgerows, banks and roadside verges.

April to June.

Biennial or perennial, rarely an annual.

Common throughout Britain though scarcer in the north

Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 605 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, abundant