Greater Burnet-saxifrage - Pimpinella major

Medium to tall plant, stem hollow, deeply ridged. Lower leaves pinnate with 3 to 9 toothed leaflets with the end leaflet being three-lobed (usually). Stem leaves smaller and with prominent inflated bases. Flowers white, sometimes pinkish 3mm in flat topped umbels 3 to 6 cm across with 10 to 15 rays.

Similar to several other medium-sized white flowered umbellifers

Usually flowers later than Cow Parsley.  Stem ridges and hollow.  Basal leaves simply pinnate, with ovate, toothed leaflets (not ferny).  Fruits oval and ridged, less than 2 times as long as wide

A photo of the plant in habitat, showing its basal leaves and a side-on view of the umbel, with fruits. 

Roadside verges, rough grassland, hedgebanks and woodland margins.

June to August.

Perennial.

In Britain it is only frequent in south-eastern, central and northern England and in the South-west of Ireland.

It is quite frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 241 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as native, occasional