Berula erecta Lesser Water-parsnip

An aquatic umbellifer with a parsnip-like smell and leaves that have 5-10 leaflets which are toothed in the upper parts of the shoot. Leaves at the base often have a conspicuous white ring on the petiole below the lowest pair of developed leaflets. The white ring and the stalked umbells are good field identification features which will separate Lesser Water-parsnip from the superficially similar Fool's-water-cress (Apium nodiflorum). It is a common plant of streamsides, wet ditches and ponds in the lowlands of West Glamorgan.

Native