Plant of the week: Cow parsley vs. Elder

Following a recent incident when I made an arse of myself by insisting Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) was Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), I thought I'd do some research and create a handy guide for myself and any one else that gets pedantic about wild flowers.

 

Spot the difference.. left: Ground elder, right: Cow parsley

Both plants are found all over the country, have similar flowers and grow up to 1m and share carrot family heritage, but the most important similarity is to not confuse either of them with Elder (Sambucus), and get annoyed that your elderberry/elderflower alcohol tastes funny.

 

Initial research (googling) shows a lot of love for Cow parsley as an 'important link in the food chain', but everyone hates Ground elder; the 'fast-growing, invasive, perennial weed'. The main physical difference in the plants is that Cow parsley has leaves that resemble flat parsley (surprise!), while Ground elder leaves resemble Elder tree leaves (though they're completely unrelated species). People seem to partly hate Ground elder for tricking them in to thinking it's lovely tasty Elder, though Ground elder is edible (though the only tasty part are the young shoots, which is still better than Cow parsley which isn't edible at all). Flowers appear on both plants in May and June but Ground elder carries on blooming until August.

May you never be confused by plants you drive past and hardly notice on country roads again!