Keyed Out #040 — Conium maculatum

Question 1

Its small white flowers are held in umbrellas of umbrellas: a ring of stalks springs from one point on the stem, and every one of them ends in a second, smaller umbrella.

Accepted Answer

carrot family

Question 2

Its dry fruit splits at maturity down the middle into two ribbed one-seeded halves, which hang briefly from a forked central thread.

Accepted Answer

Apiaceae

Question 3

Crushed foliage gives off a rank, musty, mouse-like odour instead of the sweet aromatic scent of a kitchen herb.

Accepted Answer

Conium

Question 4

Underground it runs one white fleshy unbranched vertical root, not a bundle of swollen finger-like storage tubers.

Accepted Answer

Conium

Question 5

Its stem is entirely hairless and smooth to the touch, and is boldly streaked and blotched with purple over green.

Accepted Answer

Conium maculatum

Question 6

Its leaves are cut three or four times over into fine, glossy, fern-like segments, not merely divided once into broad coarsely toothed leaflets.

Accepted Answer

Conium maculatum