Habit: Perennial herb, glabrous; rhizome internally chambered, sap becoming +- red-brown in air, fibrous- or tuberous-rooted.
Stem: erect, hollow.
Leaf: blade oblong to triangular-ovate, 1--3-pinnate or ternate-pinnate, leaflets linear to lance-ovate, serrate or irregularly cut.
Inflorescence: umbels compound; bracts generally 0; bractlets generally inconspicuous; rays, pedicels many, spreading.
Flower: calyx lobes minute; petals wide, white, tips narrowed.
Fruit: ovoid to spheric, +- compressed side-to-side; ribs low, corky, occasionally unequally spaced; oil tube 1 per rib-interval; fruit axis divided to base.
Seed: face flat or concave.
Species In Genus: +- 4 species: Eurasia, North America.
Etymology: (Ancient Latin name)
Toxicity: TOXIC: the most lethally toxic native plant species.
Unabridged Note: Both species below contain cicutoxin, a strong poison; many livestock and human deaths recorded.Jepson eFlora Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Reference: [Lee & Downie 2006 Canad J Bot 84:453--468]
Unabridged Reference: [Mulligan 1980 Canad J Bot 58:1755--1767]Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Cicuta
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