Common Hedge Parsley
Common Hedge Parsley
Torilis arvensis
Also known as: sock bane · spreading hedge-parsley · spreading hedge parsley · tall sock-destroyer · Hedge Parsley
Plantae
COMMON

Stats

Lifespan
Annual
Size
Medium
Diet
Photosynthetic
Biome
Temperate grassland
Range
Europe
Movement
Sessile
Breeding
Seeds
Defense
Spines
Status
Common

About

A weedy carrot-family annual with delicate lacy foliage and small white flower umbels, common hedge parsley is easy to overlook until its fruit ripens into tiny bristly burrs covered in hooked spines that cling tenaciously to fur and clothing to hitch a ride to new ground.

Life cycle

  1. 1.
    seed
    A dormant seed waits for water and warmth before germinating.
  2. 2.
    sprout
    A first shoot emerges with cotyledon leaves and a tap root reaching down.
  3. 3.
    sapling
    A young plant grows true leaves and a stem or trunk, putting on height each season.
  4. 4.
    mature
    Fully grown, flowering or fruiting at adult size.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom
Plantae
Phylum
Tracheophyta
Class
Magnoliopsida
Order
Apiales
Family
Apiaceae
Genus
Torilis
Species
Torilis arvensis