The stems are also deadly. There have been several deadly poisonings in mountains of Arizona where the stem or leaves were sucked or eaten. A case is reported elsewhere on the net where two range-hands repairing a fence were found dead. They had pulled a couple of stems to chew on (like many of us do with Johnson grass or other large grass stems).

Several years ago, a family of 5 (parents, three young children) died in the Alpine, Arizona area, because the father fancied himself a survivalist and demonstrated to his family how to find and prepare wild relatives of the carrot plant. They were found at their campsite. Death occurs in about 15 minutes, no antidote is known.

Don’t believe that you can even touch any part of the water hemlock with consumption in mind. It’ll be one of your last thoughts if you go through with it.

There are reports of deaths of children who played with stems, then ate a sandwich without washing their hands.

On top of that, the leaves look VERY-VERY much like marijuana leaves (especially young water hemlock plants). The first time I saw a water hemlock, I was convinced that it was a marijuana plant growing by the side of a river. There are some reports from forest rangers of deaths of “latter day hippies” who mistook them for such, and then either baked them in cookies or smoked them.

This is one DANGEROUS plant. It is beautiful to look at, but, don’t touch it without thoroughly washing your hands, unless you are currently tired of life.