Can anybody tell me what this is?

This grows all over, I just wanted to know if it's safe for bunnies? It doesn't grow in my garden but grows near where I forage, when the safe stuff actually starts growing!

I wouldn't give it to my rabbits, but maybe someone will be along who knows what it is.

No, I won't give them anything until I'm 100% certain it is ok. If it is highly toxic, it just mean I can't pick any forage from nearby.

The key to this one is the whole length of the stems & the smell of the crushed leaves.
It appears to be "wild parsley" otherwise called wild chervil which I don't normally feed to my buns. It's a strong diuretic, & makes some buns overactive, & humping crazy.

To a beginner it looks very similar to hemlock which has slightly finer leaves, maroon blotches on mature stems, & smells kind of mousy when the leaf is crushed (which I don't advise). Hemlock is seriously, deadly poisonous. This is why I advise people on here not to feed similar looking plants if 1 can be poisonous.

The young plants may not have obvious blotches or even, when mature the blotches can be small.
See the 1st. poisonous plant on here for mature Hemlock http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?303114-Plant-Images

Fortunately the poison isn't transmitted to other plants at all, so it's safe to forage near the worst scenario, have done so myself, & notice that wildies do so too. (It'd be a bit difficult to get that dandelion leaf without the other leaves though.

thumps_ said:

The key to this one is the whole length of the stems & the smell of the crushed leaves.
It appears to be "wild parsley" otherwise called wild chervil which I don't normally feed to my buns. It's a strong diuretic, & makes some buns overactive, & humping crazy.

To a beginner it looks very similar to hemlock which has slightly finer leaves, maroon blotches on mature stems, & smells kind of mousy when the leaf is crushed (which I don't advise). Hemlock is seriously, deadly poisonous. This is why I advise people on here not to feed similar looking plants if 1 can be poisonous.

The young plants may not have obvious blotches or even, when mature the blotches can be small.
See the 1st. poisonous plant on here for mature Hemlock http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?303114-Plant-Images

Fortunately the poison isn't transmitted to other plants at all, so it's safe to forage near the worst scenario, have done so myself, & notice that wildies do so too. (It'd be a bit difficult to get that dandelion leaf without the other leaves though.

Click to expand...

Jesus, I have this in my garden. I'm going to have to get rid of it, somehow. I follow them about when they are free ranging ad chase them away from anything that I'm unsure of. They nibble most things but generally won't sit and scoff the things they shouldn't.

The pic is just out the back of my garden. What you say is "wild parsley" probably is, because in amongst these, I've noticed plants that look very similar with maroon stems, obviously this is hemlock. :shock:

Vegan_Bunny said:

Jesus, I have this in my garden. I'm going to have to get rid of it, somehow. I follow them about when they are free ranging ad chase them away from anything that I'm unsure of. They nibble most things but generally won't sit and scoff the things they shouldn't.

The pic is just out the back of my garden. What you say is "wild parsley" probably is, because in amongst these, I've noticed plants that look very similar with maroon stems, obviously this is hemlock. :shock:

Click to expand...

Don't panic you may still be OK. Some cow parsely has diffusely, non blotchy, mauve stems at the base. Hemlock is about 2' taller when fully grown & has blotches as if spattered with dark blood.
(Country folk lore is, that if a plant looks as if it's spattered with "blood" it's seriously poisonous. This works really well except there are many poisonous plants which aren't conveniently marked!)

If you do have hemlock amongst the cow parsley it's about the only occasion where I'd use a systemmic herbicide, & just now when there's rapid growth is a good time. When it dies off, use gloves to collect all the dead plant material & burn it.
We've recently got quite a bad hemlock problem locally. When I'm out for a walk (not foraging) I take some "round up" & spot kill the hemlock & ragwort (like the good farmers do).

Yes, by far the majority of rabbits know what they should & shouldn't eat. By far the majority of unsafe plants are fine if they just have tiny a nibble. I'd be astounded if they ate even a nibble of hemlock TBH.

thumps_ said:

Don't panic you may still be OK. Some cow parsely has diffusely, non blotchy, mauve stems at the base. Hemlock is about 2' taller when fully grown & has blotches as if spattered with dark blood.
(Country folk lore is, that if a plant looks as if it's spattered with "blood" it's seriously poisonous. This works really well except there are many poisonous plants which aren't conveniently marked!)

If you do have hemlock amongst the cow parsley it's about the only occasion where I'd use a systemmic herbicide, & just now when there's rapid growth is a good time. When it dies off, use gloves to collect all the dead plant material & burn it.
We've recently got quite a bad hemlock problem locally. When I'm out for a walk (not foraging) I take some "round up" & spot kill the hemlock & ragwort (like the good farmers do).

Yes, by far the majority of rabbits know what they should & shouldn't eat. By far the majority of unsafe plants are fine if they just have tiny a nibble. I'd be astounded if they ate even a nibble of hemlock TBH.

Click to expand...

Yes, most rabbits know the difference between safe and none-safe plants but I worry because Fiver will eat daisies and house plants (he runs at the house plants, takes a mouthful and legs it!). I know they aren't all very poisonous but they certainly aren't good for a bunny! :lol: I would like to think that if something was very poisonous, he wouldn't touch it. I had hemlock in the garden last year (but I didn't know what it was and left it because it wasn't where the buns could get it) but I'm going to make sure it isn't anywhere in my garden. There's only so much I can do, my garden is pretty huge and "busy" with plants, trees and flowers of all sorts, hence why my bunnies are followed religiously whilst they are free ranging lol.
I don't like to use weed killer or anything like that in the garden. You never know what else it might kill and I get a lot of animals in my garden! I will scour my garden for poisonous plants. I have some woody nightshade near my pond, but it's been left there because the rabbits can't get to it...plus it is very pretty! :lol: