John H. sent us this message. He has done some research and provides a link at the end to share the information he found. Thanks, John!
On Wednesday morning, I was clearing a small irrigation ditch of baby cottonwoods, roses, and similar brush and encountered a clump of Water Hemlock. It was very healthy and nicely blooming. I took a photo before dispatching it to the great weed garden in the sky.
I’ve gathered a couple of things from the Internet and made a one page note on this plant. It is one very highly poisonous plant and needs to be removed (carefully), if it is on your property.
Within the page I have written there are 2 active links. The first takes you to the source of most of my text and is the source of the first photo.
The second link is to a site from folks who live where the hemlock is just a bit different. Theirs is “spotted water-hemlock” and shows more purple color on the stems – often in spots, thus, the name. Other than that the photos are excellent on that site.
When I took photos I had to do so between wind gusts of about 25 mph. These are the two at the bottom of the page:
http://elixant.com/~nancyh/WaterHemlock2.html
See you Sunday,
John