What should I do with these seed pods?

[ClaudiaWinklepanda]

I think they’re from wild Angellica. Do I just chuck them into soil now, or do I have to faff with seed trays etc?

And should I open the pods?

Forgot to attach photo!

Anyone?

Just chucking them down will mean more are at risk of being eaten, rot, or weeded when they start coming up and you don't know what they are. I believe they need cold stratifying, so pop them in the fridge for a while. That said, I bought a plant last year and it has chucked seeds all over the place, so I am just leaving them to see what comes up. The parent plant dies back, but regrow.

Tbh I'm not sure I'd sow any seeds from an umbelliferous plant unless I was absolutely sure what it was.

I wouldn't sow anything not knowing what it was either. I'm a big 'let it go to seed and see what springs up' gardener but I am not sure why you've saved something that you don't know what it is.

By all means sow them in some wild patch but you may come to regret it if you sow them in your garden and they spend 20 years germinating and it is something you dont want.

Check online if the seeds can be saved or dried out on a windowsill and the best time to sow....sew.

I can't spell it!

I'm a complete noob but managed to sew phlox and sweet peas successfully this year first attempt.

Was the original plant tall? It looks to me like hogweed, the sap of which can cause a nasty rash on exposure to sunlight. Do you really want to grow that?

I think they’re from wild Angellica.
If it's specifically angelica you're after then you can buy packets of seeds (with instructions!) for just a few pounds.

Hmm, this isn’t encouraging. I will google Hogweed.

Unless you have a 100% positive id, then I wouldn't risk it.

Yep,I agree. I don’t know what ‘wild Angelica ‘ is (is it cow parsley?) but I think that is hogweed.

don’t plant it anywhere children could get at it, it can be lethal if a small child puts it anywhere near its mouth.

Never heard of wild angelica, it looks like cow parsley or hogweed, hard to tell from a seedhead

Hmm, this has given me pause for thought, I didn’t know about Giant Hogweed. I do have umbellifers in my garden already (cow parsley and wild carrot), they don’t give me the fear in general but I think I’ll give the Unidentified-Possibly-Giant-Hogweed a swerve. Thanks all!

That's the thing about this family - a huge mix of edible, pretty and innocuous, contact irritants of various severities, and toxic.

Colours can change when dried, but this looks as if it was probably green when fresh whereas wild angelica is purplish. I think you're right not to risk it.

Yes, one for the bin, I think, OP. Umbellifers range from delicious to toxic, and it's not worth the gamble.

Why? They”ll be a lot easier to identify once you have some leaves

Angelica seeds are slightly oval, like two discs intersecting at right angles, just like the seed you can see under the top stalk. Hogweed seeds are more like a single flatter disc. How big was the inflorescence? Giant hogweed inflorescences are huge.

field characters for Angelica include swollen leaf bases, leaves much smoother than hogweed, purple edges to the leaves, and that it grows in damper areas, though it does overlap with hogweed.

I think it’s great to try sowing seeds and see what comes up, but as people have said, the carrot family (umbellifers) is one family (pea family is another) which you simply don’t mess with - you need to be 100% sure of the id. But just growing for curiosity, if you can keep it away from children, no problem - a lot of what we grow in our gardens is poisonous.

Please distinguish between Hogweed, Heracleum spondylium, a British native and mildly irritant, and Giant Hogweed, Heracleum mantegazzianum, a foreign species introduced by gardeners, which can produce a photosensitive rash just by brushing against it. It’s a bigger plant, up to 5m, with bigger inflorescences.

our local nature reserve recently suffered from Hogweed being chopped down by people who couldn’t tell the difference.

Yep,I agree. I don’t know what ‘wild Angelica ‘ is (is it cow parsley?) No, it’s Angelica, Angelica archangelica, same family as cow parsley, parsley, hogweed, dill, fennel, carrot, parsnip, hemlock etc. The green stems are candied and used as cake decoration.

I’m pretty certain that cow parsley seeds are long and cylindrical (I’m not getting out of bed to check) and so very easy to tell this is not that.

The plants were about chest height, flowers about 4-5 inches across.

Why shouldn’t the carrot family be messed with? I have daucus carrota (sp?) in the garden and it seems well behaved but I only put it in last summer.

Why? They”ll be a lot easier to identify once you have some leaves

Because I'm not you?
While I am fairly confident I can ID some members of the family, I don't know what I don't know.

I just wouldn't waste space with something that might turn out to be a weedy nightmare.

Especially not if it could be giant hogweed!

Or hemlock ...though I think with both of those they're big by the time they're seeding so probably not too confusable in reality.