Herbal Roulette
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“Amateurs fooling with plants in the parsley family are playing herbal roulette.”
Steven Foster and James A. Duke, A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants

Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae), commonly known as the parsley family of plants, is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants, containing 3700 species. Members include both culinary favorites and infamous poisons. An example and a word of advice: do not mistake Cicuta maculata, Water Hemlock, for wild parsnip – just one bite of the root may kill an adult.

from top, clockwise beginning at Socrates’ goblet:
Hemlock  Conium maculatum ☠
Rattlesnake Master Eryngium yuccifolium
Parsley  Petroselenum crispum
Water Hemlock  Cicuta maculata ☠
Coriander, Cilantro  Coriadrum sativum
Black Sanicle, Snakeroot  Sanicula marilandica
Fool’s Parsley  Aethursa cynapium ☠
Celery  Apium graveolens
Carrot  Daucus carota
Cow Parsnip  Heracleum lanatum ☠
Queen Anne’s Lace  Daucus carota
Angelica  Angelica atropurpurea