WATER HEMLOCK

Cicuta mexicana

3 to 8 feet

Fast rate of growth

Full sun to shade

Requires wet soil or shallow standing water

Zones 8 to 11

A large, erect, herbaceous perennial with fleshy tubers; a hollow, glabrous, purple-striped stem;

evergreen, coarse-toothed, pinnately compound leaves and large, flat-topped,

terminal clusters of tiny white flowers, most of the year.

All parts of the plant are poisonous.

The larval host plant for the black swallowtail.