What is wild chervil?

Careful wild chervil identification matters because this carrot-family plant is a Class A noxious weed in Pennsylvania. That’s the state’s top category, meaning it isn’t widespread yet and the goal is to eradicate it. Selling, planting or moving it is prohibited.

Wild chervil came from Europe, where it’s called cow parsley. It’s a short-lived perennial that forms a leafy rosette the first year, then sends up white umbrella-shaped flowers in late spring. It grows fast, crowds out other plants and forms solid stands along roadsides, field edges and stream banks. Hay fields are a particular concern, since livestock tend to avoid it.

Wild chervil identification: what to look for

Timing is your first clue. Wild chervil blooms in late spring, well before Queen Anne’s lace starts flowering in summer.

• Leaves: Shiny, mostly hairless and finely divided, like a fern or parsley. The base of each leaf stalk wraps around the stem.
• Stems: Hollow and grooved, green with no purple spots, with hairs especially near the joints and lower stem.
• Flowers: Tiny white five-petaled flowers in loose, airy umbrella clusters, with plants usually one to three and a half feet tall.
• Seeds: Narrow, smooth seeds about a quarter inch long that ripen glossy dark brown to black, joined in pairs.
• Root: A thick, deep taproot.

The leafy rosettes are among the first green things up in spring, often while the surrounding grass is still brown.

Where it grows in Pennsylvania

Wild chervil favors moist, poorly drained ground. Look for it along roadsides and ditches, on stream and river banks, in wet meadows and hay fields, and along woods edges. It tolerates partial shade and nearly any soil.

Mowers are a big part of how it spreads. Roadside and field mowing carries seed down the road, so a patch along a township road can move quickly once it’s established. Because the state treats it as an eradication target, every new location matters. If you think you’ve found it, report it to the PA Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry or your county Penn State Extension office.

Wild chervil look-alikes

Several white-flowered carrot-family plants share the same roadsides, and some are dangerous. Poison hemlock is the most important one to rule out. It’s usually taller, with smooth, hairless stems blotched with purple, and it’s deadly if eaten. Wild chervil’s stems have no purple spots and are hairy near the base.

Queen Anne’s lace blooms later in summer, is hairy all over, and has flat, dense flower clusters often with a single dark floret in the middle. Giant hogweed is enormous by comparison, with huge lobed leaves. If you aren’t sure what you have, take photos and don’t handle it with bare hands.

How to get rid of wild chervil

Because it’s a Class A noxious weed, report it first. The Department of Agriculture can confirm the ID and advise on control. Wear gloves and long sleeves for any hands-on work.

• Digging: Young plants and rosettes can be dug out in spring. You need to get the whole taproot, or it can resprout. Work in moist soil and use a sharp spade.
• Mowing: Mowing alone won’t kill it and can spread the seed. If you mow, do it as plants start to flower and before seed forms, and expect to repeat several times in a season. Clean equipment before leaving the site.
• Disposal: Bag flowering or seeding plants for the trash. Don’t compost them.
• Chemical: Extension and invasive-species programs report that glyphosate and dicamba applied to actively growing plants in spring are effective, though wild chervil can be hard to kill and repeat treatments are usually needed. Some common broadleaf products, such as 2,4-D alone, have been reported as weak on it.

Always read and follow the product label (the label is the law), and confirm the product is labeled for the site, especially along streams and ditches where only aquatic-labeled products may be used. Applying herbicide for hire in Pennsylvania requires a PA Department of Agriculture pesticide applicator certification, so larger infestations go to a licensed vegetation-management company.

Keeping it from coming back

Revisit treated spots two or three times a season for at least a few years to catch resprouts and new seedlings. The good news is that the seed doesn’t last long in the soil, so stopping seed production for a couple of years makes a big difference.

Re-establish thick grass or other desirable cover on bare ground, and avoid tilling, which spreads root pieces. Where it grows in a soggy low spot in a yard, improving drainage makes the site less friendly to it.

Keep your own mower out of a patch while it’s in seed, and if a road crew or neighbor mows past it, let them know. One pass with a dirty mower deck can start a new patch a mile away.

Questions we get about wild chervil

Similar weeds

Poison HemlockConium maculatumQueen Anne's Lace (Wild Carrot)Daucus carotaGiant HogweedHeracleum mantegazzianum