Important: Safety Warning
This page states that certain wild plants are safe to eat. Its identifications and edibility claims are more than a century old and in some cases simply wrong, and deadly look-alikes exist for many edible species. Never eat a wild plant on the strength of this text.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Thapsia
(the old Greek name used by Theophrastus, so called from the Island of Thapsos). Deadly Carrot. Including Melanoselinum and Monizia. ORD. Umbelliferae. A small genus (four species) of greenhouse or half-hardy, perennial (or biennial P), tall herbs, sometimes having a very elongated, shrubby stem, natives of the Mediterranean region and Madeira. Flowers yellowish, dirty-white, or purplish, in compound, many-rayed umbels; calyx teeth small; petals inflexed at apex, shortly acuminate; involucre often wanting. Leaflets pinnately decompound; segments incised-pinnatifid. T. garganica has long been celebrated among the Moors for its healing qualities. The species thrive in loamy soil. They may be increased by seeds, or by breaks from the carrot-like root.
T. decipiens (deceiving). Black Parsley. fl. white; petals obovate, emarginate; involucre composed of many cut leaves. June and July. l. tripinnate; leaflets ovate, acuminate, serrated, the ultimate ones usually confluent; petioles sheathing. Stem terete, simple, naked below, shrubby. h. 6ft. Madeira, 1867. (B. M. 5670.) T. edulis (edible). fl. white, small, disposed in compound, many-rayed umbels, furnished with partial and universal involucres of entire leaflets. May. l. large, decompound, fern-like, in tufts, from 1ft. to 3ft. in length (including the stalks). h. 4ft. Madeira, 1857. The roots, which have long, curved, horn-like divisions, and are black outwards and white within, are eaten in Madeira. SYN. Monizia edulis (B. M. 5724).
T. garganica (Garganian). Drias-plant. fl. yellow; involucre few-leaved. July and August. l. bi-tripinnatisect, shining; segments linear, acute, elongated, quite entire along the margins, decurrent or confluent. Stem terete, glabrous. h. 2ft. to 4ft. Mediterranean region. 1683. (B. M. 6293; S. F. G. 287.)
T. villosa (villous). fl. yellow; involucre and involucels almost wanting. June and July. l. tripinnate, and, as well as the petioles, villous; leaflets oblong, sinuately pinnatifid, the lower ones deflexed. Stem terete, glabrous. h. 3ft. to 4ft. South Europe, 1710.