I bought some Angelica last year and I just harvested the roots. I just want to be absolutely sure that it's Angelica and not Water Hemlock. Is there a way to tell? They look almost the same to me. I'll get a picture up of the roots and leaves in a minute.
WATER HEMLOCKS ARE THE MOST POISONOUS DEADLY PLANTS IN NORTH AMERICA. This can not be stressed enough. I strongly suggest you leave identification to the experts! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has documented cases of people dying after eating water hemlock. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00026056.htm Jerry
IDing some look-a-like plants in person is iffy sometimes and doing it by looking at a photo online is the least accurate way. Some of our members do grow a wide variety of herbs but I don't know that any of us would consider ourselves expert enough to make a positive ID between a medicinal plant and a deadly one. So, like Jerry suggested, take it to an herb expert or if you really don't trust the ID of the person/nursery who sold it to you maybe throwing the plant away and buying dried Angelica would be best.
So...what happened to the picture? I think if all you have is the harvested roots, if there's ANY doubt about the nursery you got it from, I'd avoid using it. The main ways to tell them apart is by looking at the whole plant and the differences in the leaves.
I figured it out! The little "teeth" (don't know what it's called) on both plant are about identical, but on the Water Hemlock the veins in the leaf only go to the bottom of the teeth and don't hit the top, but on the Angelica the veins go all the way to the tip. I have Angelica and not Water Hemlock.
