Bill, we've got plenty of wild parsnip here in the east-central portion of the state. Nothing much to add except to say that 2-4D would have worked well for you if applied prior to seedhead formation. In this respect, it's no different than all the folks who spray their lawns for dandelions when they see dandelions.....and in the process actually pump more energy into said seed production, rather than doing as recommended and doing that control in the late summer/fall, when all the baby dandelions would be caught too.

One other caveat worth mentioning is that there is a very fine native plant-also in the Apiaceae or carrot family-which superficially resembles wild parsnip. This is Zizia aurea, or golden alexanders. Just sayin....if you (anybody) think you may have the noxious wild parnsip on your property, do at least take the time to assure yourself that it is not instead the valuable Zizia.

Hi, Wisconsintom. Good point on the golden alexanders! When my wife first got that parsnip burn, I looked on line and saw the yellow umbrel flower on parsnip photos, then proceeded down to the prairie grass area in my yard and carefully pulled out the golden alexander by mistake. Once I saw the real thing, it will now be impossible to make the mistake. This year, I breathed a sigh of relief when some golden alexander is growing back in the yard. For those reading this who haven't seen these both and don't want to make the mistake that I did, golden alexander is a beautiful, shorter plant, maybe 2 ft tall. Parsnips, on the other hand, are quite large when they flower, up to 6 ft tall.

How does it spread? The seeds are too heavy to be blown by the wind.Please everyone,dont use roundup anymore.Scientist have just discovered it's also good at killing our bodies.It has a chemical that is an analog of a chemical that our bodies manufacture.So our bodies will use that poison ingredient instead of our natural healthy one, just like how our bodies will choose carbon monoxide instead of oxygen.Roundup will kill you and all wildlife everywhere.The big money manufacturers are going to fight a ban so if you see it still on the shelf that doesn't mean it's no longer deadly.OP,hope you succeed at exterminating the wild parsnips.

Jaybirdyj, I'm far from cavalier in my approach to pesticides and their usage, but the supposed "science" behind some recent pronouncements regarding glyphosate-the active ingredient in Roundup-are surely junk science. In fact, they've already been shown to be just that, untrue fear-mongering. Hey, I know some big companies-Monsanto is likely one of them-are callous in their operations and strategies, but that simply does not mean their inventions are dangerous.

I've taken baths in glyphosate. I guess I wasn't so smart and on the day I'm thinking back to, many years ago, spraying with a 12-volt pump sprayer, I watched that bubble in the hose grow all morning. Had I been a smarter person, I would have known the thing was getting ready to rupture. But no, I just went on with my spraying until eventually, the pressurized hose did burst and I was showered with product.

That had to be at least 25 years ago, and so far, no third arm has grown out of my forehead, nor have I yet succumbed to cancer or any other serious malady, and this despite a notably checkered past.

I read up a little more on glyphosate and there is no concrete evidence that it causes cancer or other health problems.There is a big push in Europe to ban it's sale.I read that many weeds are developing resistance to it.Trace residues of glyphosate have been found in food sold at market.Myself I worry about frankenfoods like Monsanto's roundup ready food crops and how they might effect human health in the long run.Wild parsnip has always been around my area near Chicago and I thought for a long time that it was native.50 years ago almost every wild parsnip that grew in the cornfield across the street had at least one black swallowtail caterpillar on it.I know I touched the plants often,but don't ever recall getting a rash or blisters. I'm more worried about the poison hemlock growing around here.I would say try to make sure that you don't let any of the weeds go to seed.Be patient.It could take a while.Right now I'm still trying to totally kill 2 trumpet vines and I've been at it for 2 years.Do whatever it takes. It's rapid spread must be caused by it throwing seeds,just like queen Anne's lace and dill, which can both get out of hand.

I don't think we ever clarified exactly which species we were discussing.I looked up wild parsnip on wiki and a couple other sites and they said the name wild parsnip can refer to a few different species including hogweed which does cause a rash.The kind I was referring to has yellow umbrells and grows about three feet with fat serrated leaves.I need to go back and research this further.I feel for you because I had a queen Anne's lace problem a couple years ago and it took some work to get it under control.I think gardenweb should start an invasive plant forum since it's so often discussed on here.If you can identify the exact species it would be great to know.

If we didn't discuss invasive plants there would be even less activity. Its one of our favorite subjects along with the destruction of habitats. We do love to rant. Its about the only place you can point out that a plant is listed as invasive (or introduced for that matter) without getting peoples backs up....

The kind of wild parsnip that I am dealing with is pastinaca sativa. It has yellow umbrels, but is more like 5-6 ft tall. I do see some shorter ones, as well. There are some pictures on this page: http://therippleeffectmn.blogspot.com/2015/06/wild-parsnip-and-its-look-alike-golden.html

Nasty plant!!!. I have a native wild Prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttalli var texana in my fields and thanks to you making me check up on it with Google , I found out that it is used like dill, both the seed and foliage. Texas prairie Parsley

Bill, the wild parsnip I was talking about is the same species as yours.I think it's juice might have slightly irritated my skin when I handled it,but I never got a rash.There was a lot of it growing in the unplowed parts of the cornfield.I was a kid and I never got the impression it was taking over.There was a good mix of other weeds so it seemed balanced.Only now do I find out that it's not native and is invasive.Even now in my area I see it but it doesn't seem to be taking over.We have a few species here by Chicago that are taking over like teasle,reed grass hemlock.Oh,and wantonamara, I'm going totally native and I was hoping I could find a native substitute for dill so this is great. I think prairie parsley will add some contrast and texture to my prairie wildflower garden.Get all of those taproots out and stay on it like a plague.

@ wisconsitom, just wanted to give you a hearty thanks for the reminder about golden alexander. You saved a nice colony yesterday. As I was working on the infestation in my disabled neighbor's ditch, I ran across some golden alexander. Wow, that is close! The leaves aren't that much different, size isn't that much different, and flowers aren't that much different! Really amazing to see them side by side, how close they really are. Close call!

Status report: I tried the "glove of death" approach. If I did it again, I'd use two cotton gloves over the rubber glove, just to hold a little more juice. It seems to work really well to give a good handful of leaves a squeeze to ring some glyphosate out on them.

Can't talk about efficacy, though. As I was finishing the treatment of a few hundred parsnips, a few rain drops started to fall. Within a few minutes, the ditches were full of water and trees were down! It probably washed off the glyphosate. This morning, I took advantage of the wet soil, and just pulled them all. Some were actually starting to wilt, so I think the technique will be a good one.

FWIW

Yes, hand-wicking is the method of last choice, in that it is so time-consuming. But in some cases, it's all you've got. It does work. We use it on a wide array of troublesome species, in situations where spraying is out of the question, usually due to desirable vegetation being in the way.

FWIW, I find a ditch full of wild parnsip to be quite beautiful. That is, up until it goes to seed. These umbelliferous flower types are quite lovely, even when they sit atop a bad invasive species.

Also, just wanted to say, the invasion of wild parsnip as we see it today is of recent vintage. No way was this plant commonplace years ago. Whoever says that was looking at something similar but not the same.

Somewhere, I read that part of the reason for the invasion is that we are mowing ditches later in the year than we used to, now after they are going to seed. A mower is quite the transport mechanism.

You are right, they look nice until they start to turn colors, at which point, there is not much uglier.

By the time they've turned yellow,they've already started setting seed.It would be great to see the day when all the invasives are no more and golden Alexander's and other natives are common again and not just rare remnants barely hanging on.

I happen to be lucky enough to have a pristine (I usually hate that word but it fits here) wet meadow up at my tree farm/wooded land up north. Golden alexanders are present there, along with a ton of spotted Joe Pye, green bulrush, numerous sedges, Canada anemone, and so on. The golden a's are great plants.

I garden in umbellifer central - well over 20 species are endemic in the area including the dramatic, but fearsome water dropworts and giant hogweeds (hieraceum mantegazzianum). As many of these are biennial, I have found topping the seed heads early with hedge trimmers is a way of controlling future infestation...although attention must be given to regrowth as the seeds are persistent in the soil. Nonetheless, within 4 years, I have vastly reduced the hogweed (hieraceum spondylifera) alexanders (smyrnium perfoliatum) and dropweed (oenanthe crocata) while encouraging wild angelica, peucedanum, meum and various new ones top me such as zizia and giant fennel.

Quite right, Camp-most are biennials. We use that bit of fact all the time in our planted prairies, managing both this relatively recent invader as well as such commonplace non-natives as wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace), and a handful of others. Incidentally, giant hogweed has shown up in this state as well. Newspapers and other outlets are hyping it as an invasion of sorts, and all I can think about is how now, I'm certain numerous native and lovely cow parsnips are being destroyed by ignorant folks. Sometimes, no information is far better than just a little!

It is actually quite hard to find solidly perennial apiaceae - the US native angelica arguta has been on my wish list for some time as a good returner. Zizia, (and a couple of bupleurums and scary bear's angelica from Sakhalin) are new to me this year - how long-lived is it, do you know, Tom? Along with the mint family, umbels are the major perennial plant grouping in my area...to my delight - there is something in flower from the first alexanders in March through to the last angelicas in September - and the skeletal flower heads are utterly iconic against a Norfolk winter sky. Not being remotely purist, I have been besotted with giant fennels and those cauliflower-like New Zealand megaherbs such as anisotome ...and the range of edibles which also look beautiful gone to seed.

Having been on a so far futile quest to obtain seeds of fresh peucedanum palustre, it has become abundantly clear to me why our only native swallowtail butterfly has fallen down the evolutionary rabbit hole of single species specialism and is consequently reduced to only a few square miles in the entire UK.

bill_g - I don't know that everyone will get burns on their first exposure to Pastinica sativa... I didn't. A few summers ago I spent a couple of hours photographing the plant for my wildflower website, I did not know the danger the plant's sap can have. I pulled up a couple of plants to look at the thickened parsnip root, pulled some plants up that were in the way of ones I wanted to photograph, fussed with arranging the leaves on a few plants to try to photograph a leaf. I was wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt, but my hands were touching the plants off and on for 2 + hours. I wouldn't recommend anyone else try that, and I was very careful around the plants when I went back a week later for some more photos (I even wore gloves the next time while trying to takes photos, not easy).

I am very sensitive to Poison Ivy, but escaped without burns from Pastinica sativa.

Forgot to add, perhaps a person's hands are less susceptible than wrists, arms, and legs. I've had Poison Ivy blisters on my wrists, forearms, and legs eight or nine times but never on my hands. Could it be your hands are less susceptible to Poison Ivy and to Wild Parsnip's sap? Don't know.

As far as I know, it is not an allergic reaction like poison ivy, but an actual chemical reaction involving the UV light from the sun. I have talked to others who have pulled them without a problem, so you might be right about the palms. Might also have to do with the palms not getting sun like other parts of the arm, or that the palms react to the sun differently. I can't say that I remember ever having a sunburn on my palms, either. The burns that I got on my forearms looked very much like burns that I would have expected if I had laid a hot soldering iron on my skin. They blistered, and now have left scars. So far, the places that burned have not reacted again to the sun.

I'm looking for seeds for Thaspium trifoliatum trifoliatum.It's the purple flowered variation of our native meadow parsnip. I have already posted on the seed exchange but haven't heard anything back. I just thought I'd give it a shot here. I have a nice variety of native seeds for trade. My garden isn't big so I usually get rid of seed beads now before they ripen unless I need more seeds.I realized that was a good practice after seeing how dill and Queen Anne's Lace were invading the beds. I have looked into buying seeds online but no one seems to be selling the purple flowered Thaspium. I think I'm immune to the effects of Pastinica sativa but not poison ivy.It's been interesting,this thread has made me aware of a lot of space as I never knew existed.

Mmm - very nice...and not too dissimilar to a European native, bupleurum longifolium Bronze beauty.

The coumarins responsible for causing reactive allergic conditions when sap is exposed to sunlight is apparent in some, but by no means all umbellifers...hieraceum mantegazzianum is the main offender in my area..while other such as oenanthe and conium (hemlock) are more famously toxic when ingestion occurs (Socrates style). Even so, as a class, the apiaceae are up there with legumes (for me) as plants which are both beautiful and utilitarian - essential in all my gardens.

@jbirdyj, try Prairie Moon Nursery, in MN. While they are out of stock now, get on a list.

https://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/thaspium-trifoliatum-meadow-parsnip.html

Prairie Moon was the first place I looked and they only have the yellow flowering variety.If I'm unable to find the purple one I'll probably order their yellow one. I just wanted to have some native apiaceas for the swallowtails that I could mix into a prairie flower garden which would look better that the plot of dill I've been growing for years now.I'll probably still grow a small amount of dill in pots. I added 2 plants this year.Regular and heart leaved Golden Alexander's,and I'm going to get seeds for the native prairie parsley and Sweet Cicely from Prairie Moon for next year.If I can't find seeds for Thaspium trifoliatum trifoliatum than I'll get the yellow Thaspium trifoliatum from Prairie Moon.It seems like I always fixate my wish list with plants that are nearly impossible to find. I'm wondering if one of those seed sellers in the U.K. might have it.That would be the irony, having to buy a U.S. native in the U.K.Well I'm very tenacious when it comes to finding a plant or seed that I just must have and I've got about 8 months to do it so we'll see.Thanks for the tip on Prairie Moon, I ordered a lot of seeds from them for this year and I go to them first when looking for native seeds.

Oh,by the way,Bill g.How is your eradication project going.I don't know how long the seeds stay viable so I'm thinking you will have to look out for new seedlings next year.My eradication philosophy is get the seed beads before they disperse ,pull or dig the plants root and all,and if not able to get all the root then pull any top growth to starve the root to death.This has kind of turned into a butterfly,apiacea,native,invasive plant forum but I like it.

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@jaybirdyj, seems to be going well. After finding loads of them two summers ago, and mostly just pulling them, there are hardly any left. I know that the seed bank is still viable and will be there for a while, but it seems that pulling when they first bolt is the ticket, and they are not that tough to get rid of. There will be some forever, though, because they keep working their way down the roads from neighbors who don't control them. For what it is worth, a two-handed straight up pull is probably the easiest thing (long sleeve shirt and gloves, for sure)

The never ending problem is starting to work on buckthorn, finding parsnips, and then finding more stuff. The more I look, the more there is. My last three weekends have focused on canada thistle, with mixed luck. Pulled parsnips for two neighbors, but that was the easy part.

By the way, @glen_cdn_prairies, that is a pretty amazing website! Very complete, and excellent photos!

@bill_g, that's really nice of you to say about our website, thanks so much. I have google analytics on the website out of curiousity to see what pages folks are looking at. The last couple of weeks Pastinaca sativa has been one of the most viewed pages every day... it's been flowering along the highways here now for a couple of weeks.

Thanks for the update and website.My previous neighbor didn't do any weeding so her Canada thistles were running under the fence to my garden.She moved and it's been better because the newbies are taking better care.Those buckthorns seem to pop all over I'm thinking from birds. I like to get them out when they're still small so you can pull out the whole root.Mulberries are a bit more difficult. I have a big one that grew behind my fence,but I've let it grow because it's on the southern side and totally screens out the neighbors. I think it's a male which means no seeds and I haven't seen any seedlings, even though the mother to it is 2 doors down. I grew arborvitaes there for about 15 years, and they were just getting close to completely screening the neighbors when they all turned brown and died. I'm guessing it was caused by a drought,but I couldn't understand why after 15 years their root systems were not deep enough to weather it.Anyway the mulberry did in about 3 years what I was hoping the arborvitaes would do in 15. I just want to trim the branches back to the fence line to get more sun on the plants growing there.It also helps that I have an old hops vine I somehow managed to confine, growing up into the mulberry and filling in the open spaces.There is also a Chinese Elm so along with the stinging nettle I've almost got the entire urticacean astrid clade,except for Celtis and I have the other member of that clade growing in a safe unnoticeable place.What a fast growing,vigorous,tenacious clade of plants. I'm thinking about shackeling the Elm before it starts setting seeds. I read if you strip about a foot of barkandall the way around and cut out the living wood the tree won't be able to send food to the roots and will die completely without the ability to grow new suckers like cut down elms usually do.Has anyone tried this.Does anybody else have an android phone that likes to change the spelling of latin names or am I going crazy?

My auto correct on my apple computer does it and gets me livid. I am a bad speller anyway so it is always changing words and I am not always good at going back and checking.

My Aunt used to sneak on my land up in PA and ring my non native trees. The idea of busy bodied interference pissed me off but I did not object because she was doing it to Norwegian maples and was actually saving me money. I should have said thank you but she was a hard lady to thank .

Camp, sorry for the delay in responding. Was travelling for a few days and not looking at any screens. Beautiful Door County, WI, an amazing place, if being loved to death. To answer your question from a while back, I only know of Zizia to be quite solidly perennial here in Wisconsin. I suspect that Angelica purpurea is in that weird zone of biennial/occasionally fully perennial. That's about all I got.

Jaybird, yes, cutting away a strip of bark all the way around a stem of an unwanted tree will indeed cause that tree's death without the proliferation of root sprouts seen otherwise-at least in some cases where I've used the technique. I like to spiral down as I go. It may be hogwash, but I think that allows for a bit of stability to remain after the tree dies, but before it crashes to the ground. The most recent species I've used it on was Populus balsamea-actually a perfectly fine native tree here in NE Wisconsin, but these were growing in and within a grove of Thuja occidentalis which I wanted to favor with more light. In truth though, I probably could have done nothing and ended up with much the same results, the poplar acting as a sort of "nurse tree" to set up the site for later colonization by the conifers. In any event, my land has many many balsam poplars. I didn't appreciably reduce the numbers of this native tree.

oooh, but that evocative scent of balsamifera!

OK, sowed zizia seeds (along with various bupleurum), Looked for the thaspium, Jaybirdy but no luck with the purples. I did notice that B&T world seeds were suggesting a smoke primer for germination though. The angelica purpurea is definitely a biennial but was wondering if anyone had any info on a.arguta, a US native which is purportedly perennial. I have a few of those enormous bears angelicas from Sakhalin Island but keeping a weather eye out and topping them early. Beautiful plants though, I honestly love the apiaceae almost as much as ranunculaceae (my desert island (ahem) plant family.Between the umbels and labiates, they account for over 3/4 of my plant diversity.

Thanks for looking Campanula. I live in Illinois.I found out from the Illinois Wildflower Website that the purple flowered Thaspium is growing in my county and 3 surrounding counties here. Actually it's supposed to be growing in many Illinois counties. I don't recall ever seeing it myself. I'm pretty sure the plants have went to seed already so I wouldn't have any way of telling whether plants were yellow or purple.There is a seed production farm nearby that grows the plants for the 23.000 acre Midewin National Prairie which is in the area. I was thinking about asking them if they could spare a few if they have them. I'm not stressing about locating seeds anymore. I will be happy enough to order the yellow flowered form from Prairie Moon Nursery, and grow it while exploring the local wildlands where it's recorded to be growing.There are some protected and restored prairies, and wild lands in Illinois, that I've never taken the time to visit, and this will give me a push to get out there and explore them.Things are looking up.Yesterday I saw my first Tiger Swallowtail and first Black Swallowtail of the season.They were were drinking from the Tithonias,Zinnias,and cosmos, that I planted especially for them.The Black Swallowtail was fluttering around my Zizia which made me hopeful. I usually would wait until I see the caterpillars before I put them in a cage to raise them. I'll get on the butterfly forum and get some answers about whether or not it's better to collect the eggs to prevent predators from eating them.The non indigenous earwigs are very numerous around here and I'm beginning to wonder if they are contributing to the butterfly decline. I did check out Thompson and Morgan for seeds,but I'm done with my internet search for now.I'm feeling confident that I'll locate some come Spring.Thank you much for looking for me.

Joyously, I have managed to track down milk parsley, (peucedanum/thyselium palustre) from a French source (the same B&T world seeds) as they are the only food source for our native swallowtail (which is only endemic in a few square miles where my wood is, in the entire UK). The european swallowtail has made a couple of appearances on the south coast and there are always hopes that it may interbreed with our native, if only to widen the feeding diversity. The continental caterpillars will feed off fennel and a few other umbels but our native has gone down the single food source specialist rabbithole and consequently, is in dire trouble...not least because even the tiny bit of pristine river habitat left is slowly being developed...grrr!.

I would love to have that seed source on or shores. I also wish their minimum order was less. They are amazing to scroll through. I always wonder how fresh their seeds are. They have so MANY. I have been tempted to order texas natives from them . LOL.

Campanula,that milk parsley is a stunningly beautiful plant.Even though it's not native here, I'm very tempted to grow it.Your native Swallowtail is also eye candy. I hope your government considers saving some wild wetlands for its survival. I find it very interesting that your subspecies Papilio britannica only uses the milk parsley as a host plant while the other Old World Swallowtails will use many apiacea species. I can see why you hope they will hybridize.Papilio macheon seems to be in the far northern parts of North America also. I will have to research just what host plants they're using up there.I hope a lot more U.K. butterfly enthusiasts start growing Peucedanum palustre. I apologize for any misspellings,my Droid turbo keeps changing correct Latin names into what it thinks I'm trying to write. I'm going to contact the makers about it.It's very annoying.The ferny leaves and milky sap,how cool is that!