Also called ‘Queen Anne’s Lace’, ‘Hedge Parsley’, ‘Wild Parsley’ and ‘Wild Chervil’, this is one of the earliest flowering umbellifers in spring. This is a fast-growing, tall plant with hollow, unspotted stems. It usually grows in great numbers and produces white frothy umbrellas made up of small white flowers. The leaves are large and fern-like, and when crushed they produce a strong, aniseed-like scent. Plant height 60 to 150 cm. Umbels 6 to 12 mm wide.
Flowers April to June. It prefers moist soil and grows in masses along roadsides, riverbanks, near streams and pools, woodland margins, hedgerows, meadows and pastures. Native, common and widespread throughout Britain.
Nature Journeys 