White Flowers
(
Umbrella-shaped Flower Clusters )
Carrot Family (Apiaceae)
Cow-parsnip
Heracleum lanatum
Season: June/July
Habitat: Montane to Subalpine Moist Areas
Height: Up to 2 m
Description: This tall flower can be identified by its immensity alone. Few other flowers grow to this height. The thick, hairy stem rises with alternately arranged compound leaves branching off the main stem. The huge leaves, up to 30 cm across. They often curl upwards at the leaf margin. They are deeply toothed. The junction of leaf and stem are unique. The leaf joins the stem with a thickened base which clasps the stem. The flowers grow in dense umbels, or umbrella shaped clusters, up to 30 cm across. These umbels have all the flowers growing at the end of a leaf-stalk, but with all the leaf-stalks originating from a single junction.
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