Among the umbrella plants there are clear class divisions more to do with names than with botany. Cow Parsley, which transforms the path edges with white topped tracery in May and June earns its name because of something it's not, 'cow' being a label occasionally used in the past to designate an imposter. Most people will have heard of fool's gold and there is also a Fool's Parsley and a Stone Parsley. And the member of the family that follows Cow Parsley is Hedge Parsley now to be seen along some parts of the bridleway below the road.
People valued Parsley as they still do but obviously it's always been understood that mistakes might be made in identification even in days when people were much more directly involved in the natural world.
The dominant umbrella plant of the moment is Hogweed with a reputation for coarseness and, common as it is, it's not many people's favourite of the family. It can grow tall and stately though as here, determined to look down on the nettles in a display of inter-caste rivalry.
But there are others in the family with another claim to superiority.
Angelica is classed as a herb for it has culinary uses and herbs must be higher up the social ladder than mere weeds. It is surely only here at all because of a limestone influence brought in from road workings in the past. Its flower is not quite out yet but the swellings that precede both flower and leaf are worthy in themselves.
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