Kids Research Express

Poison Hemlock Poison Hemlock, common name for poisonous herbs belonging to two different genera of the parsley family. Hemlock, or poison hemlock, is a large, coarse, unpleasant-smelling plant, all parts of which are poisonous and may be fatal if eaten. It is the poison hemlock that was used to put Socrates to death. Native to Europe, the plant is now naturalized in the United States and occurs as a luxuriant weed, up to 3 m (10 ft) tall, along roadsides and in abandoned fields. The dark-green leaves are divided and redivided into small, ovate, toothed segments. The hollow stems are characteristically blotched with purple. The small white flowers are grouped into flat-topped clusters called umbels. The poisonous principles in hemlock are alkaloids that affect the nervous system and induce trembling, loss of coordination, and paralysis of respiration. The second type of poison hemlock are the water hemlocks, such as musquash root, related botanically to poison hemlock but toxicological...

Hemlock Hemlock, common name for any of a genus of coniferous trees (see Pine). The genus includes about ten species, four native to temperate North America and the rest to eastern Asia. Hemlocks are tall, straight evergreens with slender branches bearing scattered, two-ranked leaves and pendulous cones. The eastern hemlock grows in hilly forests in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada. It is a tall tree, usually 18 to 30 m (60 to 100 ft) in height, with light, spreading, delicate foliage. The leaves are dark green with longitudinal white lines on the lower surfaces. The wood of the eastern hemlock is used extensively as construction lumber, and tannins produced by the bark were at one time used for tanning leather. The Carolina hemlock is a somewhat smaller tree, rarely as tall as 21 m (70 ft), that grows in the mountains of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. The mountain hemlock is another relatively small species, 6 to 27 m (20 to 90 ft) tall, which grows along the P...