I’m not very good at identifying umbellifers – Wild carrot, Hogweed, Cow parsley, Wild parsnip are fairly straight forward but I tend to ignore the others. So, when I spotted this clump and immediately thought ‘That looks different’, I thought I’d make an effort to work out what it was. I took a few photos but, when I got home and started checking, I quickly realised I needed more detailed and specific images. Luckily, this plant was growing somewhere I often pass so I managed to get more photos last Wednesday. This is how, using photos and information I found on the Wildflower Finder website, I managed to identify the plant as Upright hedge-parsley (Torilis japonica).

The stems of the plant are quite thin but stiff, and the flowers are held on umbels, which have between 5 and 9 umbellets (little clumps of flowers). The stems (and leaves) are covered in ‘white bristly hairs giving it a slight rough feel’. Beneath the umbels, there are bracts (like narrow leaves), which ‘are often just underneath the “spokes” of the umbels and therefore usually hidden from view’.

At each join, where a stalk branches out from the main stem, you can see a small leaf. The leaves are larger at the bottom of the plant, smaller towards the top. The shapes of the leaves match those I found on the Wildflower Finder website.

The flowers are mostly white, though some have a pinkish tinge, all with 5 red anthers. The fruits form immediately underneath the flowers, and can be seen more clearly when all the petals have fallen off. ‘The fruits are barrel-shaped and are surrounded by vertical rows of spines’ and ‘The white and red spines on the fruits are curved inwards like horns, and taper towards the tip….’