Roots that look and smell like parsnips are washing up on beaches in Cumbria. Coastguards have warned people not to touch Oenanthe crocata (or Hemlock Water Dropwort to its friends).
The poison attacks the nervous system causing death and seizures in humans and animals.
It was fed to elderly pre-Roman Sardinians when they became a burden, apparently leaving corpses with a โsardonic grinโ.
K. Ziarnek
