Wild parsnip blooming across the Taconic corridor

July 27, 2026Taconic Mountains

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(Pastinaca sativa) is flowering in force across the region this week — 23 sightings in the past sixty days, running from Bennington and Rutland counties in Vermont down into Warren County in New York, including roadsides and trailheads along the Appalachian Trail corridor and through Green Mountain National Forest. The plant is at its peak seeding period now, when flat-topped yellow flower heads produce thousands of seeds that colonize disturbed ground, extending its range a little further with each growing season.

What makes wild parsnip worth knowing on sight is its sap. Skin contact followed by sunlight triggers a phototoxic burn — blistering, streaky scarring that people often mistake for poison ivy until damage is already done. Introduced from Europe and once cultivated as a root vegetable, it has been naturalized in the Northeast for centuries, but roadside mowing practices scatter seeds along managed corridors deep into otherwise intact forest, accelerating spread into places that were once safer from it.

Data from iNaturalist

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