hemlock

/ˌhɛmˈlɑk/

/ˈhɛmlɒk/

Other forms: hemlocks

Hemlock is a famously poisonous plant that resembles a flowering fern. No matter how hungry you are when you're lost in the woods, you should never eat hemlock.

There are actually several toxic varieties of hemlock (as well as the harmless North American hemlock tree), but the most infamous is known by the genus name Conium. This hemlock causes death by slowly paralyzing the body, eventually including the respiratory system, while the poisoned person's mind remains alert. The Greek philosopher Socrates was found guilty of heresy in 399 BCE and sentenced to drink hemlock-based poison.

Definitions of hemlock

1. noun

   large branching biennial herb native to Eurasia and Africa and adventive in North America having large fernlike leaves and white flowers; usually found in damp habitats; all parts extremely poisonous
   synonyms: California fern, Conium maculatum, Nebraska fern, poison hemlock, poison parsley, winter fern

   type of:

   poisonous plant

   a plant that when touched or ingested in sufficient quantity can be harmful or fatal to an organism
2. noun

   poisonous drug derived from an Eurasian plant of the genus Conium
   “Socrates refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock”

   type of:

   phytotoxin, plant toxin

   any substance produced by plants that is similar in its properties to extracellular bacterial toxin
3. noun

   an evergreen tree
   synonyms: hemlock tree

   types:

   Canadian hemlock, Tsuga canadensis, eastern hemlock, spruce pine

   common forest tree of the eastern United States and Canada; used especially for pulpwood

   Carolina hemlock, Tsuga caroliniana

   medium-sized evergreen of southeastern United States having spreading branches and widely diverging cone scales

   Tsuga mertensiana, black hemlock, mountain hemlock

   large evergreen of western United States; wood much harder than Canadian hemlock

   Pacific hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla, west coast hemlock, western hemlock

   tall evergreen of western North America; commercially important timber tree

   type of:

   conifer, coniferous tree

   any gymnospermous tree or shrub bearing cones
4. noun

   soft coarse splintery wood of a hemlock tree especially the western hemlock
   type of:

   wood

   the hard fibrous lignified substance under the bark of trees