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Oenanthe crocata
Also called Water Dropwort, Water Hemlock
A robust perennial of wet grassland and stream banks in Europe and the Mediterranean, grown mainly as a wild or naturalistic plant rather than for the garden. It is extremely poisonous and should be handled with care.
Oenanthe crocata, hemlock water-dropwort (sometimes known as dead man's fingers) is a flowering plant in the carrot family, native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It grows in damp grassland and wet woodland, often along river and stream banks. All parts of the plant are extremely toxic and it has been known to cause human and livestock poisoning.
The toxic principle in the plant is oenanthotoxin, a polyunsaturated fatty alcohol that works by blocking γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors. The plant is very poisonous to humans and livestock and can cause death if poisoning is left untreated after ingestion. Symptoms in livestock include increased salivation, dilated pupils, respiratory distress, and convulsions. Cattle poisoning from this plant occurs sporadically. For example, several cases were reported during the 1995 drought in the West Country, England. Due to the shortage of grass in the fields, the cattle were driven to graze by ditches where hemlock water-dropwort grew.
Instances of poisoning in humans are rare, with only 13 cases reported in Britain between 1900 and 1978, mostly involving children. However, 9 of these 13 were fatal. Serious cases usually involved consumption of the roots, which were mistaken for parsnip. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, seizures, hallucinations, ataxia, and haemorrhaging of the brain and lungs.
The native distribution of hemlock water-dropwort is concentrated along the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, from the coast of the Netherlands south to Portugal and Spain, rapidly becoming rare inland. It is common again in Corsica and Sardinia but otherwise only sparsely distributed around the Mediterranean east to Syria and southwards to Morocco. It is perhaps most common in Britain and Ireland, where it is widespread throughout, even in inland locations.
Scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont in Italy wrote that they had identified Oenanthe crocata as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. The poison constricts the muscles causing death by asphyxia which causes a death grin, the sardonic grin. This plant is a possible candidate for the "sardonic herb", which was a neurotoxic plant referred to in ancient histories. It was purportedly used for the ritual killing of elderly people and criminals in Nuragic Sardinia. The subjects were intoxicated with the herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
Java waterdropwort · Corkyfruit waterdropwort · Waterdropwort
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Oenanthe crocata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
