Wild parsnip
The big issue with Wild Parsnip is that it causes boils on your skin if you get any of it's oil on you. The oil is on the leaves, flowers and stem. It's amazingly painful.
Description:
Appearance: Monocarpic perennial herbaceous plant (plant spends one or more years in rosette stage, blooms under favorable conditions, and then dies), 6" high in the rosette stage and 4' high on stout, grooved stems in the flowering stage.
Leaves: Alternate, leaf is made up of 5 -15 egg shaped leaflets along both sides of a common stalk; leaflets sharply-toothed or lobed at the margins; upper leaves smaller.
Flowers: Flat-topped broad flower cluster 2 - 6" wide, numerous five-petaled yellow flowers; bloom from June to late summer.
Seeds: Small, flat, round, slightly ribbed, strawcolored, abundant take 3 weeks to ripen before they can reseed; viable in the soil for 4 years.
Roots: Long, thick, edible taproot.
Warning - Avoid skin contact with the toxic sap of the plant tissue by wearing gloves, long sleeves and long pants. The juice of wild parsnip in contact with skin in the presence of sunlight can cause a rash and blistering and discoloration of the skin (phytophotodermatitis).
Control Methods:Mechanical
Hand pulling and removing of plants
Cut the plant below the root crown before seeds set, and remove the cut plant
Mow or cut the base of the flowering stem and remove
Chemical
Use sparingly in quality habitats
Spot application with glyphosate or selective metsulfuron after a prescribed burn, parsnip is one of the first plants to green up
Description:
Appearance: Monocarpic perennial herbaceous plant (plant spends one or more years in rosette stage, blooms under favorable conditions, and then dies), 6" high in the rosette stage and 4' high on stout, grooved stems in the flowering stage.
Leaves: Alternate, leaf is made up of 5 -15 egg shaped leaflets along both sides of a common stalk; leaflets sharply-toothed or lobed at the margins; upper leaves smaller.
Flowers: Flat-topped broad flower cluster 2 - 6" wide, numerous five-petaled yellow flowers; bloom from June to late summer.
Seeds: Small, flat, round, slightly ribbed, strawcolored, abundant take 3 weeks to ripen before they can reseed; viable in the soil for 4 years.
Roots: Long, thick, edible taproot.
Warning - Avoid skin contact with the toxic sap of the plant tissue by wearing gloves, long sleeves and long pants. The juice of wild parsnip in contact with skin in the presence of sunlight can cause a rash and blistering and discoloration of the skin (phytophotodermatitis).
Control Methods:Mechanical
Hand pulling and removing of plants
Cut the plant below the root crown before seeds set, and remove the cut plant
Mow or cut the base of the flowering stem and remove
Chemical
Use sparingly in quality habitats
Spot application with glyphosate or selective metsulfuron after a prescribed burn, parsnip is one of the first plants to green up