Heracleum maximum (syn: Heracleum lanatum)
Cow Parsnip

Family: Apiaceae [Umbelliferae] (Carrot family)

Photo taken in Tumwater Canyon, moist meadow, mostly sunny, near road and the river (20 meters away)

Flowers:

umbells compound; flowers white; inflorescence tomentose to long hairy

Fruit:

Leaves:

blades 2 to 5 dm wide; ternate with palmately lobed leaflets, coarsely serrate and lobed

Plant:

1 to 3 meters tall; tomentose or villous to nearly glabrous. Young shoots peeled and eaten raw or cooked by the Coeur d'Alene, Okanagan-Colville, Okanagon, Yakama, Shuswap, Spokan, and Thompson. It was also dried or frozen for future use.

Habitat:

stream banks or moist ground, lowland to middle elevations in the mountains

Distribution of species:

Alaska to California, east to Arizona and the Eastern United States

Distribution of genus:

more or less 80 species: Eurasia, East Africa, only 1 in North America