Scientific Name: Heracleum lanatum
Common Name: cow parsnip
Family Name: Apiaceae
Origin: North America
Hardiness Zone: Zone 3: (-40 to -34 °C)
Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
Mature Size: 1.3 - 2.0m x 1.0 - 1.5m (height x width)
Habit: Spreading
Form: Round
Texture: Coarse
Landscape Uses: Native planting, Waterside planting
Exposure: Full sun
Soil or Media: Bog, Well-drained
Leaves: Compound, Alternate, Soft flexible, Palmate venation, Pubescent, Tripinnate, Ovate, Palmately lobed, Serrate
Flowers: Umbel, White, Jun-Jul
Fruit: Achene, Schizocarp, Brown, Aug-Sep
Key ID Features:
Stems single, pubescent, leafy, hollow, strong pungent odor when mature, green (usually) to purplish (rarely), ridged but not spotted; leaves alternate, ovate, 20-40cm long x 15-35cm wide, petiole base conspicuously inflated and winged, divided in 3 lobed and serrated leaflets; umbels 1-4 from side shoots, 20-30cm wide, florets white, small; schizocarp splitting into two mericarps 8-12mm long x 5-8mm wide.