The Collaborative International Dictionary
Water hemlock \Wa"ter hem"lock\ (Bot)
A poisonous umbelliferous plant ( Cicuta virosa) of Europe; also, any one of several plants of that genus.
A poisonous plant ( [OE]nanthe crocata) resembling the above.
WordNet
n. tall erect highly poisonous Eurasiatic perennial herb locally abundant in marshy areas [syn: Cicuta verosa]
Usage examples of "water hemlock".
I gathered and stored the poisons as Chade had taught me: water hemlock, deathcap mushroom, nightshade, elderberry pith, baneberry, and heart seize.
The species most commonly termed Water Hemlock is Cenanthe crocata, the Hemlock Water Dropwort, a common plant in England, especially in the southern counties, in ditches and watering places, but not occurring in Scandinavia, Holland, Germany, Russia, Turkey or Greece.
The old Roman name of Conium was Cicuta, which prevails in the mediaeval Latin literature, but was applied about 1541 by Gesner and others to another umbelliferous plant, Cicuta virosa, the Water Hemlock, which does not grow in Greece and southern Europe.
The name Water Hemlock is, though incorrectly, often popularly applied to several species of Cenanthe, the genus of the Water Dropworts, which of all the British umbelliferous plants are the most poisonous.