Poison Water Hemlock vs Elderberry (Side-by-Side Detailed Comparison) 

Your comparison should include Queen Anne's Lace or wild carrots also. Small purple flower in center of flower cluster and resembles a birds nest when it starts to dry up. It has been used medicinally for long time. The roots can be used for coffee substitute.

100% agreed! Everyone needs Learn everything they can about the good and the BAD, nature provides.

Excellent video! I've been enjoying this channel, although I know most of the plants by sight, that's because I've lived most of my life in rural southern Appalachia, I have really enjoyed the in-depth look at each plant. Great content on this channel. Edit ~ I know the plants by sight because I'm older than dirt! 👵😆

You should do compare Poison Hemlock and Queen Anne Lace, both carrot family, 1 deadly, 1 safe. Queen Anne Lace has small purple flower in center of flower cluster and flower cluster curls up and resembles a birds nest. The roots can be used as coffee substitute.

Thank you Matthew I truly enjoy all of your videos. Keep it up please. God bless you Matthew.

You are absolutely a blessing from above and I am grateful that you teach people about these plants. I see almost all the plants you show in my own yard except for elderberry and poison hemlock. I love the way carrot flowers and Queen Anne's look but they are sure similar to poison hemlock. From Southern NC.

Excellent presentation The entire quality, the video, the pace of your speech, the emphasis on the importance and showing the differences clearly up close. Oh my gosh, thank you so much. Please continue to teach us. And I will look for your guide that you've posted. Thank you so very much. A gal who's learning to enjoy the wild but doesn't want to be destroyed by it. Or to destroy it

Thank you so much! They looked very similar at first. I feel much more confident finding some elder flowers now.

Matthew, you're a treasure! Keep up the great work! Watching from Northeast Texas.

Thank you! I discovered elderberries in my yard last year. I always had a nagging thought about the berries being hemlock. Three years ago when I first saw the blooms I thought they could be Queen Ann's Lace which was my mother's favorite wild flower.

Thanks so much for this information. I have both plants near my home and wanted to know how to distinguish them. Perfect timing!

Since being taught about this deadly plant, I point it out to people. It is really common. I saw another plant ID site which discussed it but did not compare it to elderberry. SMH. So, very good job you did!!!

Thank you alnot only for the breakdown.Indifferences between these 2 plants, but the breakdown in the terminology.And the common everyday layman's terms meanings of the terminology.

Agree on the Queen Annes Lace comparison with Hemlock. They are more similar in my opinion.

thx much. i heard about water hemlock but couldn't find a definitive description. this is excellent and helpful

Man! What an AWESOME lesson!!! We should be able to identify poison water hemlock with no problems at all now. Can't wait to find it!

Thank you for sharing this ❤

You did a great job. Hope to be a camera man in rthe wild soon.

Very good break down of the two different plants. A few years back I grabbed what I thought was Elderberry from the roadside. It flowers but has not yet produced berries. The flowers however are connected and have the donut like you showed, so I wonder why they never have produced berries ?

Thanks alot, funny I was just thinking I needed to find one the other day From Michigans mitten

In your other video you did a good job at describing elderberry, but didn't mention hemlock, and I was a little worried for people who didn't know.

I love your videos Matthew. I’ve always loved wild plants and as a child would wander the wetter part of our property searching for wild flowers and unusual plants. We foraged some; dandelion, ramps and persimmons. I never understood the difference particularly between Queen Anne’s lace and Poison hemlock and when I brought home a bouquet of wild flowers and what I thought was QAL, but was poison hemlock, my dad just told me not to touch them until I was old enough to learn the difference. I do wish you had spoken to QAL in this video though. That and poison hemlock seem more similar.

Another great video Matthew! (your brother Eric)

You are an excellent teacher! I wish you were in the Pacific Northwest. :)

Thank you. I just requested to join the FB account 👍 I'm not very active on FB except for my business page but I'll get the notifications and can't wait to join. Thanks again!

Best video I've seen on this subject.

Very informative!

Great breakdown! Thank you!

I noticed the leaves are different. The ones on the elderberry bush seemed serrated vs smooth on the hemlock and "leaves 3 (hemlock) leave it be, leaves 5 (elderberry) let it thrive... thank you for this video. Could you do something like this for plants in the northeast?

Excellent!!! Sooo helpful

Thank you for this wonderful video.

Im watched a comparison of 2 hemlocks that didn't have the long pointed leaves, no program I've watched had been clear

This was fantastic and completely clear! I have plants that look similar growing a block away but was too afraid to even look at the plants. I am going to go see if I can tell the difference. However, I believe there are two more look-a-likes, aren't there? Wild carrot and Queen Anne's lace? Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Thank you 🫶🌞

I live in the pacific northwest Poison hemlock Is very Similar looking Queen anne's lace or Even yarrow if you don't know what you're looking for Just remember hemlock has purple stems purple on the stems And queen anne's lace= the Queen's legs are always hairy

I noticed at the start of the video it looked like bees(?) were visiting the hemlock - are bees/butterflies and the like any indication of if a plant is edible or not?? and if bees do "feed" on non-edible plants does it taint their honey?

👍 subbed 6/06/24 36.2K

Thank you for clearing that up. But, is the entire plant poisonous or just the berries?

Can't help but wonder if all of these beautiful umbel flowers I've seen in the highway medium are poisonous. 😮😮😮 Lord, I hope not.

Does elderberry look similar to the poisonous hogwart???

Where can we buy your book?

Which plants have meow? :-)

"I cant find the link to your free book.

Thank you Matt. Im not 100% confident in my ability to distinguish between plants and cannot trust apps like leaf snap. Beside the fact i am remote enough not to be able to use apps a lot due to lack of internet services. Elderberry is something on my radar but Ive yet to actually get a positive ID and many i see are too far into private property where someone may shoot and ask questions later. To be absolutely sure, i cheated and planted a bush on my property.

Thank you. Wash your hands!