Water Parsely

Let us leave redwoods for a little while and go walk in the marshes. Marshes usually have a very rich habitat with fertile soil so many plants really strive in this environment. One plant that is fairly common there is water parsley. Here is the picture of this plant growing among other plants:

Water parsley

In the above picture notice poison hemlock growing north of horsetail plants. Be careful to identify these plants correctly. Hemlock has lacy leaves, smooth stems and purple blotches on the stem. Parsley leaves are not so lacy.

Here is the picture of water parsley in bloom. Notice that parsley usually blooms when exposed to the sun. From my observations species in the shade seldom if ever have blooms.

 Water parsley bloom

Here is a nice branch of water parsley:

Water parsley composite leaf

Water parsley is reputed edible. I have tried it myself, it has kind of a mustard taste (that is mustard leaves, not the condiment). Again, be careful to identify it correctly though as parsley, hemlock, wild carrot and angelica have family resemblance (they all belong to Umbelliferae family, also known as Apiaceae or carrot family).

Here is another patch, mainly parsley than other plants:

 Water parsley at Butcher's Slough

Incidentally water parsley also grows in the redwood forest but it is more typical in the marshes. I happen to have a picture of parsley growing in the redwood forest:

More water parsley