Plants that look alike

Wild garlic, lily of the valley and autumn crocus

The most dangerous mix-up in Swedish nature. All three have broad, elongated green leaves in a dense carpet in early spring:

• Wild garlic (Allium ursinum) — edible, and the only one of the three that gives a clear smell of garlic when you rub a leaf between your fingers. The leaves sit on a stem that is semicircular in cross-section, and the underside is a duller green.
• Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) — poisonous. The leaves are usually two, on a shared stem that is round in cross-section, and the underside is glossy green. If the flowers become bells in a one-sided cluster, the matter is settled.
• Autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) — deadly poisonous (colchicine). The leaves are broader, more upright and glossy, with no stem formation, and it flowers only in autumn, without leaves. Mature, broadly upright leaves in a wild garlic patch should always raise suspicion.

The smell test is decisive — but only together with the other characteristics. A wild garlic that does not smell of garlic when you rub the leaf is not wild garlic.

Ground elder, hemlock and fool's parsley

Ground elder is picked by many as a spinach substitute. The leaves resemble two very poisonous umbellifers:

• Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria) — edible. The leaves are triangular, pointed and toothed, and smell faintly of celery. It flowers with a white, flat umbel in June–July.
• Hemlock (Conium maculatum) — deadly poisonous. A red-spotted stem is the clearest sign, but the leaves are very similar to those of ground elder and young plants may lack spots. Smells musty-mousy, never of celery.
• Fool's parsley (Aethusa cynapium) — poisonous. Resembles parsley, but the underside of the leaves is glossy green and it has drooping white bunches beneath the flower head.

Bilberry leaves and lily of the valley leaves

Lily of the valley leaves are deceptively similar to those of the bilberry plant, especially early on before the berries have appeared. The difference: bilberry leaves sit on twigs and are finely toothed along the edge with a slightly downy underside, while lily of the valley leaves come straight out of the ground in a dense carpet and have an entire edge.

Harmless but confusing pairs

• Monstera and philodendron — both have lobed leaves and belong to the same family, share characteristics and are both toxic to pets. The model saying "philodendron" when you have a monstera is a genus error, not a species error.
• Alsike clover and white clover — the flower heads are almost identical in white and pink, but alsike clover has an upright stem and round, fully green leaflets, while white clover creeps along the ground and usually carries a pale V-shaped mark on its leaflets.
• Chervil and cow parsley — in mown meadows and roadside verges; the difference in smell is the strongest (chervil aniseed, cow parsley no aniseed smell).

What to do when you are unsure

1. Rub a leaf and smell it. Smell beats appearance in most leaf mix-ups.
2. Look at the underside. Glossy or dull, downy or not, is often the decisive detail.
3. Cut a stem. Round, semicircular, solid or hollow.
4. See the whole plant — flower head and leaves in context.
5. Ask someone who knows or send the find to a botanical society. If it is food: leave it.

The tool here at plants.rostad.cc is built for the same thing: it shows two independent models' suggestions and their confidence. If they disagree about a lookalike species, trust your own examination — not the more confident of the two. See also toxic plants for cats.