Is wild celery the same plant as celery?

Wild celery is not celery. The Chinese scientific name of wild celery is cowbane (Cicuta virosa), also known as Chinese pulsatilla, poison ginseng, celery-leaved poison hemlock, spotted cowbane, zoumaqin, etc. It is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Cicuta in the Apiaceae family, distributed in the North Temperate Zone. In China it grows in swampy watersides or ditch banks in the Northeast, Northwest and North China regions. Its leaves resemble celery leaves, it blooms in summer, and the whole plant has a foul odor.

Wild celery grows 70-100 cm tall. The main root is shortened, with numerous branch roots that are fleshy or fibrous. The rhizome is jointed, with transverse diaphragms inside, and brown. The stem is erect and solitary, cylindrical, hollow and striped, sometimes slightly purplish at the base, branched above, with the branches ascending and spreading. The leaf sheaths are membranous. The leaf blade outline is triangular or triangular-lanceolate, with lobes linear-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate. The upper stem leaves have short petioles, and the leaf blade division is shaped like that of the basal leaves. The ultimate lobes are narrowly lanceolate, with sparsely serrate margins.

The compound umbels of wild celery are terminal or axillary. The involucre usually has no bracts or has 1 linear bract, while the involucel has numerous linear-lanceolate bracteoles. The umbellules have 15-35 flowers, with pedicels 4-7 mm long. The calyx teeth are conspicuous, ovate-triangular. The petals are white, obovate or nearly round, with a small inflexed lobule at the tip. The filaments are about 2.5 mm long, and the anthers are nearly ovate. The stylopodium is flattened when young, and the styles are short and reflexed outward. The schizocarp is nearly ovate, with a constricted commissure, broad ribs, and corky texture, and the endosperm is slightly concave on the ventral side. The flowering and fruiting period is July to August.

Wild celery grows at altitudes of 400-2900 m under mixed forests, in wetlands or by ditches. Worldwide it is distributed in the Russian Far East, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. In China it is produced in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang and other provinces and regions, and it was historically cultivated in Xinghua, Jiangsu.

Wild celery is one of the highly toxic plants. Its toxic component, cicutoxin, is a neutral resin-like substance with picrotoxin-like effects, easily soluble in alcohol and alkaline solutions. It is mainly contained in the root, but is also present in other parts. Cicutoxin is very easily absorbed. A person who eats it is poisoned within minutes, and the lips often blister (even blood blisters). Its main toxicity affects the central nervous system, with a very pronounced convulsant effect. After poisoning there are dizziness, vomiting, convulsions, skin redness, and a bluish complexion, finally followed by paralysis, with death from respiratory failure. The poisoning dose in humans is 30-60 mg, and the lethal dose is 120-150 mg.