Umbellifers

STARLINGS BATHE each afternoon in the shallow pebbled edge of the pond. They perch on the willow to preen and dry off. Sparrows soon follow their example.

Two superficially similar Umbellifers are just now coming into flower. Both grow along path edges and in hedgerows, both have ferny leaves and umbells of small white flowers.

• Sweet Cicely has stems that are smooth when you turn them between your fingers, its leaves tend to be yellowy green.

• Cow Parsley has a ribbed stem, its leaves are deeper green, and not so soft looking.

• Later in the summer, the seeds of Sweet Cicely smell of aniseed.

• For habitat, Sweet Cicely seems to favour hedgerows while the Parsley seems just as much at home on wasteground.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail;'richard@daelnet.co.uk'