Sharptooth angelica, Angelica arguta.

Scientific name: Angelica arguta

Common name: Sharptooth angelica

Sharptooth angelica is a robust, tap-rooted perennial up to 6 feet tall, that grows mainly in or near water, in moist soil, streambanks, and crowded marshes. It is fairly common from Alaska to California, from western valleys and the Cascades to Alberta, and in Wyoming and Utah.

The base of the lateral stems are sheathing around the main stem. The flowers are white, tiny, and borne in eight to 45 compound spherical clusters, the overall umbel being up to about 15 inches across. The leaves are twice divided into smaller leaflets, and the edges are sharply toothed.

One Northwest tribe ate the young stems, and used it to flavor salmon that was dried and heated over an open fire. The stems were also eaten as a vegetable in May for its celery flavor. But do not try to eat it. You could easily have the wrong plant.

Please note: A lot of plants from the same plant family are deadly poisonous and look very much the same as this plant. Poison Hemlock, for example, is a large plant that is very common in the Blues, and along the Umatilla River, and is extremely poisonous; it’s the same plant that killed Socrates.