Conium maculatum (Hemlock)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > Eudicotyledons > Core Eudicots > Asterids > Euasterid II > Order: Apiales > Family: Apiaceae > Genus: Conium

Hemlock is a cosmopolitan weed originating from Europe that has been introduced to South Africa and become established in the Western Cape. It can grow up to 3 m tall and has much divided leaves and hollow stems blotched with purple. It has flat-topped umbels of small white flowers 

Hemlock is highly poisonous containing pyridine alkaloids, chemically related to nicotine, that affect the nervous system, causing trembling, loss of co-ordination and respiratory paralysis. The main constituent is coniine which forms a colourless, volatile, strongly alkaline oil. In 399 BC Socrates was charged in Athens with neglecting the gods of the state, introducing new divinities and corrupting the morals of the young. He was found guilty and condemned to death. He voluntarily drank a cup of hemlock juice, in keeping with execution procedure.

The name 'Hemlock' is also used to refer to water hemlocks in the genus Cicuta (also poisonous) and hemlock spruce trees (in the Pinaceae) which are in the genus Tsuga.

Text by Hamish Robertson