Cow Parsley - Anthriscus sylvestris
Medium to tall, rather robust plant to 1.5 metres. Leaves dull green 3 pinnate. Flowers white 3 to 4 mm in umbels with 4 to 15 rays, without lower bracts.
Similar to many other medium-sized white flowered umbellifers with ferny divided leaves
The dominant umbellifer of roadside hedges. Stems hollow; fruits ridged towards the top (not spiny, bristly or warty) and elongated (c.3 times longer than wide). Bracteoles and sometimes bracts present.
Rough grassy habitats, hedgerows, banks and roadside verges.
April to June.
Biennial or perennial, rarely an annual.
Common throughout Britain though scarcer in the north
Very common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 605 of the 617 tetrads.
In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, abundant
Mike Higgott
Leicester, Abbey Park
29 April 2019
Barbara Cooper
Long Clawson
30 April 2022
Saharima Roenisch
Abbey Park
22 March 2017
Barbara Cooper
Goadby Marwood
10 June 2018
David Nicholls
Bagworth Heath Woods
16 May 2013
Craig Mabbett
Countesthorpe Willoughby Road Football Pitch
20 March 2020
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Species profile
- Common names
- Keck, Kecks, Cow Parsley
- Species group:
- Wildflowers
- Kingdom:
- Plantae
- Order:
- Apiales
- Family:
- Apiaceae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 870
- First record:
- 27/05/2000 (MBNHS;Steve Woodward)
- Last record:
- 26/11/2025 (Smith, Peter)
Total records by month
% of records within its species group
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Latest images
Latest records
Andy's Rutland
Bridleway-Exton road to Love's Lane
29 April 2018
Alan Semper
Harby roadside
20 May 2012
Andy's Rutland
A606-Public Footpath above south side of River Gwash to Footbridge Mill Lane-Empingham
10 June 2018
Protomyces macrosporus
The fungus Protomyces macrosporus causes galls of stem or leaf of various umbellifers including Ground-elder and Cow Parsley.
Puccinia chaerophylli
Puccinia chaerophylli is a gall-causing rust fungus that affects the leaves and stems of umbellifers such as Cow Parsley and Sweet Cicely. Leaves, stems, petioles and shoots are swollen and distorted by yellow aecia and spermogonia; rust-coloured uredinia and brown telia also occur, usually on the leaf undersides or stems
Phytomyza chaerophylli
The larva of the Agromyzid fly Phytomyza chaerophylli mines the leaves of umbelliferous plants such as Cow Parsley. The mines often follow the margin of the leaf at first, but then expands into a blotch that covers a large area of the leaf. The mine is pale and frass is usually seen in two untidy rows of isolated grains.