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    Cow Parsnip and Love Root are close relatives and if you mentally cut a Cow Parsnip leaf into a lacy, fern-like leaf and reduce its flower size a bit, you end up with Loveroot. The two enjoy similar habitats, but Loveroot is far more common in the mountains of the Four Corners, often growing in thick, extensive patches.  See Love Root.

     Click for more Heracleum sphondylium photographs.

 

Synonyms: Heracleum sphondylium, Heracleum lanatum. Heracleum maximum.  (Cow Parsnip)
Apiaceae (Parsley Family)

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows, streamsides. Summer.
Lizard Head Trail, June 19, 2004.

Cow Parsnip is a perennial producing gigantic growth each year; no-one misses this plant.  Its leaves can be several feet broad, flower stalks up to seven feet tall, and flower clusters to a foot wide with a strong, pungent sweetness.  And it is a common plant, especially in meadows, under aspens, and along streams.  It makes spectacular displays with Loveroot and Delphinium throughout July and early August.  Squeezing its seeds produces the strong Parsley smell characteristic of many members of this family.

"Heracleum" is for Hercules, as the plant was thought to have potent medicinal properties.  "Sphondylium" is a genus name that predates Linnaeus.

Synonyms: Heracleum sphondylium, Heracleum lanatum. Heracleum maximum. 
Apiaceae (Parsley Family)

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows, streamsides. Summer.
Ryman Creek Trail, June 16, 2005.

Newly unfolding pleated leaves are just two inches long but will soon be about a foot in diameter.

 

 

Synonyms: Heracleum sphondylium, Heracleum lanatum. Heracleum maximum. 
Apiaceae (Parsley Family)

Montane, subalpine. Woodlands, meadows, streamsides. Summer.
Lizard Head Trail, June 19, 2004.

Flowers start in very tight green clumps and gradually spray outward turning white.  All of these flower phases can be found at the same time on each Heracleum in the early weeks of its blooming.

Seeds are large, colorful, and aromatic.

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