Peucedanum palustre, milk-parsley or marsh hog's fennel, is a biennial of the carrot family found in wet meadows, marshes and river margins across Europe into Central Asia. It grows best in damp to wet soil that is seasonally flooded and tolerates partial shade.
Family
Apiaceae (Carrot family)
Grows as
Perennial
Light
Shade
Water
Keep the soil consistently wet or allow seasonal flooding, as it naturally grows in marsh and shallow water margins.
Soil
Wet, fertile, heavy or peaty soil, such as marsh or bog mud.
Temperature
Tolerates cold temperate winters; hardy in cool temperate climates.
How easy
Moderate
Edible
Yes, some parts
Native range
Europe to C. Siberia
Climate
temperate
About
Peucedanum palustre (milk-parsley) is an almost glabrous biennial plant in the family Apiaceae. It is so called in English because of the thin, foetid, milky latex found in its young parts and is native to most of Europe, extending eastwards to Central Asia. Another English common name for the plant is marsh hog's fennel (hog's fennel (unqualified) and sea hog's fennel, by contrast, are common names of Peucedanum officinale, a perennial species in the same genus, found in drier habitats, but having similar medicinal properties).
Peucedanum palustre grows (as its specific name implies) in wetlands, shallow water at the margins of rivers and estuaries and occasionally in ditches and other smaller water features. It is relatively shade-tolerant and requires seasonal submerging of the site to compete with other plants.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Peucedanum palustre 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.