Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa

Wild Parsnip is a member of the Apiaceae family, often referred to as Umbellifers because of their umbrella shaped flower heads. The family includes the ancestors of many of our favourite vegetables - parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery, fennel - but also includes the most poisonous plants in Europe. They are considered fairly challenging to tell apart, but if you know what to look for, most of them are easy.

To identify an umbel to species level you need to note the following:

• are the flowers white or yellow? (If they are yellow it narrows the choice of species down very considerably.)
• are the stems hollow or solid?
• are the stems spotted or tinged with red?
• are the stems ridged or smooth?
• are the stems hairy or hairless?
• does the plant have a distinctive smell?
• how divided are the leaves? Compare the leaf shape to illustrations in a field guide.
• Compare the seed pods to illustrations in a field guide. The seed pods of different species are quite easy to distinguish from one another.
• are there bracts (like small leaves) under the main or secondary umbels?

For other umbels on Loire Valley Nature click on the Umbellifers label in the right margin.

Scientific Name: Pastinaca sativa (Apiaceae). 'Pastinaca' means 'food/pasture'; 'sativa' means 'sown/cultivated'.


English Name: Wild Parsnip (Carrot family).


French Name: Panais cultivé (='cultivated parsnip').


5 Key Characters:

• yellow flowers.
• seeds brown, flat and 'winged'.
• rough and hairy, smells strongly of parsnip.
• long tuberous cream root.
• touching the plant can result in a nasty rash (like a burn). 

Lookalikes: Wild Carrot Daucus carota, which has white flowers.


Habitat: Dry rough limestone grassland and waste ground.


Flowering Period: June-July-August.


Status: Abundant. Native to the Touraine and Berry. The garden variety is not much cultivated or eaten here, but is becoming more available. The sap is toxic and plants should be handled with care. Skin contact with the sap then exposure to the sun causes phtyophotodermatitis, a chemical burn which can be visible for more than a year. The toxins, furocoumarins, are present to discourage herbivores. The toxicity seems to vary from plant to plant and with the age of the plant (older plants seem to be more toxic).


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Taproot.

Wild Angelica Angelica sylvestris

Scientific Name: Angelica sylvestris (Apiaceae).

English Name: Wild Angelica (Carrot family).

French Name: Angélique des bois (='wood angelica').

5 Key Characters:

• fat hollow purple stems.
• leaves with oval toothed leaflets 2 - 8 cm long. 
• leaf stems hollow with large sheath at base.
• leaf stems with channel running down middle of upper side.
• flowers in many rayed umbels with no bracts (like thin leaves, around stem where rays emerge) and few bracteoles (like thin leaves, directly under the flowers).
  

Lookalikes: Other umbellifers, especially Garden Angelica Angelica archangelica, which is bigger and green, not purple.


Habitat: Damp meadows, fens, woodland, gullies.


Flowering Period: June-July-August-September.

Status: Widespread and common.


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Rural Tracks

Throughout France there is a network of variously named public rights of way. One of the most frequently encountered by walkers is the chemin rural (plural chemins ruraux). These are (usually) unpaved tracks owned and maintained by the local commune. They are almost always ancient laneways, winding through farms and today used by walkers, horse riders, hunters and farmers. Sometimes they are unmarked, but usually they have a small sign at either end with the letter R, C or V and an a number to identify them. They also frequently have the standardised walking trail symbols posted along them and appear on maps as part of the national hiking trail (randonnée) network. Even when they appear to be private farm tracks, the public is permitted to walk them. Walking them in all seasons is a great way to get to know the wildlife of this area, as they are usually long thin grasslands bordered by hedges, woodland or agricultural land, and sometimes even aquatic habitats such as streams, ditches, springs and ponds. You are unlikely to meet another person on most of them.

A chemin rural near Yzeures sur Creuse, October.

A chemin rural near Yzeures sur Creuse, October.

A notice issued by the local authority who has responsibility for maintaining this chemin rural, stapled to a trackside tree. It says that motorised vehicles are not permitted on this track between October and May ie the months when it is likely to be wet. The commune very sensibly does not want the track churned up and ruined by hunters' vans or farm machinery.

Bird watching in the Brenne down a track near la Maison du Parc.

Bird watching in the Brenne, near l'Etang vieux. This track had a sign temporarily banning agricultural vehicles because it was flooded, however that didn't stop anyone on foot who was prepared to take off their boots and slosh.

The sign on this track in the Brenne says 'Attention. Track under repair. Do not tow vehicles down it.' There was no problem (apart from ankle deep water) in walking down it.

A track through the bocage country along the River Vienne near Chinon.

A track through arable crop land and forest. This is one of my butterfly transects.

Pepper Saxifrage - Silaum silaus

Pepper Saxifrage is a member of the Apiaceae family, often referred to as Umbellifers because of their umbrella shaped flower heads. The family includes the ancestors of many of our favourite vegetables and herbs - parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery, fennel, coriander - but also includes the most poisonous plants in Europe, such as hemlock. They are considered fairly challenging to tell apart, but if you know what to look for, most of them are easy.

To identify an umbel to species level you need to note the following:

• are the flowers white or yellow? (If they are yellow it narrows the choice of species down very considerably.)
• are the stems hollow or solid?
• are the stems spotted or tinged with red?
• are the stems ridged or smooth?
• are the stems hairy or hairless?
• does the plant have a distinctive smell?
• how divided are the leaves? Compare the leaf shape to illustrations in a field guide.
• Compare the seed pods to illustrations in a field guide. The seed pods of different species are quite easy to distinguish from one another.
• are there bracts (like small leaves) under the main or secondary umbels?

Scientific Name: Silaum silaus (Apiaceae).

English Name: Pepper-Saxifrage (Umbellifer family).

French Name: Silaus des prés, Fenouil des chevaux (= 'horses fennel') or Cumin des prés (='meadow cumin').

5 Key Characters:

• pale yellow flowers with evenly sized petals in small loose umbels.
• up to 1 m tall.
• solid, ridged stems.
• leaves smell peppery when crushed and have a tiny spike at the tip.
• in grassland prone to waterlogging.

Lookalikes: Hogs Fennel Peucedanum officinale, which has much finer leaves. Cambridge Milk-parsley Selinum carvifolium (you need to compare the seeds, which are quite different, to be sure of distinguishing the two species).

Habitat: Meadows, grasslands, grassy banks, roadsides, on heavy clay.


Flowering Period: June-July-August.

Status: Fairly locally common.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Basal leaves long stalked with long thin lobes, tipped by a tiny spine.

Flowers pale yellow, no bracts.

Note the bracteoles, almost hidden under the secondary umbels, rather dry and papery looking, and appearing to have black tips in this photo.

Growing in damp rank grassland.

Growing on a roadside ditch.

Seeds collected from the plant above. Note the shape is rounded with ridges but not wings. With thanks to Tim Ford of Aigronne Valley Wildlife for taking these photos for me.

Seeds collected from the plant above. Note the shape is rounded with ridges but not wings. With thanks to Tim Ford of Aigronne Valley Wildlife for taking these photos for me.

Whorled Caraway - Carum verticillatum

Whorled Caraway is a member of the Apiaceae family, often referred to as Umbellifers because of their umbrella shaped flower heads. The family includes the ancestors of many of our favourite vegetables and herbs - parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery, fennel, coriander - but also includes the most poisonous plants in Europe, such as hemlock. They are considered fairly challenging to tell apart, but if you know what to look for, most of them are easy.

To identify an umbel to species level you need to note the following:

• are the flowers white or yellow? (If they are yellow it narrows the choice of species down very considerably.)
• are the stems hollow or solid?
• are the stems spotted or tinged with red?
• are the stems ridged or smooth?
• are the stems hairy or hairless?
• does the plant have a distinctive smell?
• how divided are the leaves? Compare the leaf shape to illustrations in a field guide.
• Compare the seed pods to illustrations in a field guide. The seed pods of different species are quite easy to distinguish from one another.
• are there bracts (like small leaves) under the main or secondary umbels?

Scientific Name: Carum verticillatum (Apiaceae). Syn Trocdaris verticillatum.


English Name: Whorled Caraway (Umbellifer family).


French Name: Le Carvi verticellé.

5 Key Characters:

• leaflets are fine green bristles which appear to be in about 20+ whorls up the erect leaf stem.
• hairless.
• stems hollow.
• small umbels of flowers (2 - 5 cm across) with 8 - 12 rays.
• many thin bracts and bracteoles.

Lookalikes: Ground-pine Ajuga reptans, which is lime-loving and ground hugging with leaves that are not so fine, flowers yellow; Mare's-tail Hippuris vulgaris, which is a much more robust plant, also lime-loving, more strictly aquatic and flowers tiny, green and inconspicuous; Yarrow Achillea millefolium, which has fine flat leaves, not in whorls around the stem.


Habitat: Damp acid meadows, marshes, streams and grassland.


Flowering Period: July-August.


Status: Localised (occuring on scattered sites throughout the area).


Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

How to Use this Website

Loire Valley Nature is designed to be used as an English language natural history web resource for lowland central France. It uses Blogger software for its easy accessibility, but it is not written as a blog ie as a periodical record of events or thoughts like a diary. Pages can be added or updated at any time.

The website comprises different types of pages, which form a network, linking one to another so you can drill down to the specific information you need. Please note that we have deliberately chosen to open all links and photos in a new page, so if you find this annoying or confusing, please just get into the habit of closing each page as you exit. We decided to go with new pages for everything because otherwise it can be difficult finding a page from earlier in your research, and in identifying species, you often have to compare information and photos on different species account pages. The back page function can be used, but can also be confusing.

Why is the website called Loire Valley Nature, when in fact, the area it is concerned with does not actually cover the entire Loire Valley?

We decided to call it Loire Valley Nature because we felt it was a name people not so familiar with the area might search for. Strictly speaking, the area covered is the Touraine, Berry and part of Poitou, or the modern administrative départments of Indre (36), Indre et Loire (37) and Vienne (86), but these are names not all of our readers may know. The website covers an area which is within the central southern boundaries of the Loire Valley in its broadest sense, ie all the rivers within the area are tributaries of the Loire and feeding into the Loire Valley system. The three départements together make up a total area of 20 000 km². In Australian terms, this is ten times the Australian Capital Territory, or one-tenth the size of Victoria. In British terms, it's the same size as Wales. Scattered across the area are many small villages and towns but the only city with a population over 100 000 is Tours. Within this area the main focus is on the relatively well known wetland of the Brenne and the half of the Touraine that is south of the Loire,  a triangle between Chinon in the west, Chambord in the east and Loches in the south. In particular there is a lot of information about the Claise valley, as that is where we live.

Geologically, we are on the southern edge of the Paris Basin, just before the land starts to rise into the Massif Central. This is lowland central France, mostly less than 100 metres above sea level (masl). The area is situated in the heart of western Europe, but is home to a surprisingly high level of biodiversity and many rarities due to its position on the northern and eastern edge of the range of Mediterranean, Turkish and Iberian species and similarly, it is on the southern edge of the range of northern European species.

The soil is mostly calcareous, often with a high clay content, but there are pockets of sand. The land is used for broadacre farming with many mixed farms and large areas of woodland, both deciduous broadleaf and conifer. The riparian and wetland habitats are of international importance, with numerous rivers and streams. Of particular note are the many man-made fish lakes, known as étangs, forming the Brenne, France's third most important wetland (after the Camargue and the Marais Poitevin). Less well known are the dry limestone butts, called éperons, which host a noteworthy assemblage of plants, including many orchids, adapted to very calcareous soils. There are also remnant pockets of heathland.

The most useful general guide to the area is the Crossbill Guide to the Loire Valley, reviewed by us here.

If you are interested in other aspects of the Loire Valley, Brenne and Touraine, you might like to read our daily blog, Days on the Claise or book an excursion with Loire Valley Time Travel. To see our range of nature walks and workshops, please click on the page tab above. You can email us by clicking on our profile links to the right. Please note that we always respond to emails within 48 hours, so if you do not get a response, please check your spam folder or get in touch via the Loire Valley Time Travel contact page.

Fine Leaved Water Dropwort - Oenanthe aquatica

Scientific Name: Oenanthe aquatica (Apiaceae).

English Name: Fine Leaved Water Dropwort (Umbellifer family).

French Name: L'Oenanthe aquatique.

5 Key Characters:

• Toxic - be careful not to subsequently put your fingers in your mouth if you handle it .
• Lower stems very swollen.
• Stems are hollow with transverse joints and fine longitudinal ridges.
• Umbels short stalked.
• Seeds (technically fruit) long and oval - match their appearance in a good field guide.

Lookalikes: Other umbels, especially other Oenanthe spp eg Tubular Water Dropwort O. fistulosa or Corky Fruited Water Dropwort O. pimpinelloides. All the Oenanthe are poisonous, but none have exactly the same combination of key characters. Use a good field guide such as Umbellifers of the British Isles by TG Tutin (a BSBI Handbook).

Habitat: Ponds and ditches, still or slow flowing water. Often in places that go dry over summer. (Note that the one in the photograph above was recorded during the drought of 2011 - and had been accidentally stepped on - by a botanist!)

Flowering Period: June-July-August-September.

Status: Uncommon.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:

Marsh Pennywort - Hydrocotyle vulgaris

Scientific Name: Hydrocotyle vulgaris (Apiaceae).

English Name: Marsh Pennywort or White Rot (Umbellifer Family).

French Name: Ecuelle d'eau (='water saucer').

5 Key Characters:

• round rather fleshy leaves with shallow lobes.
• stalks attach to the leaves in the centre, rather in the manner of a parasol.
• tiny, difficult to spot, greenish flowers tinged with pink.
• does not look like an umbellifer.
• creeping stems.
  

Lookalikes: Other Pennyworts Hydrocotyle spp, several of which are invasive aliens. They are larger, with more divided leaves, and have not been recorded in this area. Navelwort Umbilicus rupestris, which grows in dry acid conditions such as on granite walls.

Habitat: Bogs and fens.

Flowering Period: June-July-August.

Status: Common.

Further Reading and References:
The Wild Flower Key by Francis Rose.
Umbellifers of the British Isles by T G Tutin (a BSBI Handbook).
Tela Botanica.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:
All photos will enlarge in a new window if you click on them. Row 1 - 2 in the drawdown zone of the Etang de la Ribaloche in the Foret de Preuilly, June. Top left shows the flower. Note that the white flowers top centre and bottom left belong to Lesser Water Plantain Baldellia ranuculoides, and the yellow flowers in top right are Lesser Spearwort Ranunculus flammula.

Milk Parsley - Peucedanum palustre

Milk Parsley is a member of the Apiaceae family, often referred to as Umbellifers because of their umbrella shaped flower heads. The family includes the ancestors of many of our favourite vegetables and spices - parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery, fennel, coriander - but also includes the most poisonous plants in Europe. They are considered fairly challenging to tell apart, but if you know what to look for it helps a lot.

To identify an umbel to species level you need to note the following:

• are the flowers white or yellow? (If they are yellow it narrows the choice of species down very considerably.)
• are the stems hollow or solid?
• are the stems spotted or tinged with red?
• are the stems ridged or smooth?
• are the stems hairy or hairless?
• does the plant have a distinctive smell?
• how divided are the leaves? Compare the leaf shape to illustrations in a field guide.
• Compare the seed pods to illustrations in a field guide. The seed pods of different species are quite easy to distinguish from one another.
• are there bracts (like small leaves) under the main or secondary umbels?

For other umbels on Loire Valley Nature click on the Umbellifers label in the right margin.

Scientific Name: Peucedanum palustre (syn. Thysselinum palustre)

English Name: Milk Parsley, Marsh Parsley, Hogs Fennel.

French Name: Peucédan des marais.

5 Key Characters:

• white flowers.
• leaf stems have a central groove.
• stems hollow, grooved and angled, often tinged red.
• no distinctive smell when crushed.
• bracts at the base of umbels.

Lookalikes: Pepper Saxifrage Silaum silaus, which has solid stems, yellow flowers, very few bracts and smells a bit of pepper when crushed.

Habitat: Calcareous fens, damp peaty grassland on the edges of neutral to alkaline marshland. Full sun or sometimes a little shade, in long grass, ditches, alder woods, reed beds.

Flowering Period: July-August-September.

Status: Protected. Rare and localised. Present in the Touraine and Brenne, but not in Vienne. Note that it is not an important host plant for the Swallowtail Papilio machaon in France.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:
Photographs numbered from left to right and top to bottom. 1 - 2 in damp pasture in the Brenne, May.

Sanicle - Sanicula europaea

Sanicle is a member of the Apiaceae family, often referred to as Umbellifers because of their umbrella shaped flower heads. The family includes the ancestors of many of our favourite vegetables - parsnips, carrots, parsley, celery, fennel - but also includes the most poisonous plants in Europe. They are considered fairly challenging to tell apart, but if you know what to look for, most of them are easy.

To identify an umbel to species level you need to note the following:

• are the flowers white or yellow? (If they are yellow it narrows the choice of species down very considerably.)
• are the stems hollow or solid?
• are the stems spotted or tinged with red?
• are the stems ridged or smooth?
• are the stems hairy or hairless?
• does the plant have a distinctive smell?
• how divided are the leaves? Compare the leaf shape to illustrations in a field guide.
• Compare the seed pods to illustrations in a field guide. The seed pods of different species are quite easy to distinguish from one another.
• are there bracts (like small leaves) under the main or secondary umbels?

For other umbels on Loire Valley Nature click on the Umbellifers label in the right margin.

Scientific Name: Sanicula europaea.

English Name: Sanicle.

French Name: Le Sanicle d'Europe.

5 Key Characters:

• an umbellifer (Carrot family Apiaceae).
• 20 - 60 cm tall.
• long stalked palmate leaves, up to 6 cm across, with shiny undersides.
• small clusters of umbels of white (or sometimes pink) flowers.
• umbels almost spherical.

Lookalikes: Leaves might be confused with Wood Anemone Anemone nemorosa, but this species has much larger white star shaped flowers.

Habitat: Oak and beech woods on rich limey soil.

Flowering Period: April-May-June-July-August.

Status: Very common and easy to spot.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature: