On the subject of smell, there are some people that can distinguish wild carrot from poison hemlock by smell alone.
In a controlled educational setting a sample of both was pass around a crowd of about 25 people at different times, and the instructor asked if anybody detected a strong smell in either sample.
I found the smell of poison hemlock terrible, a kind of chemical souring sensation in the back of the nose, as did one or two others in the group.
The instructor highlighted that the ratio of people sensitive was typically the same in every group, then moved on to another topic.
This might be true for water hemlock as well, but I'm not going out of my way to find out.
I still identify wild carrot visually, but always do a sniff test as a final check.
In a controlled educational setting a sample of both was pass around a crowd of about 25 people at different times, and the instructor asked if anybody detected a strong smell in either sample.
I found the smell of poison hemlock terrible, a kind of chemical souring sensation in the back of the nose, as did one or two others in the group.
The instructor highlighted that the ratio of people sensitive was typically the same in every group, then moved on to another topic.
This might be true for water hemlock as well, but I'm not going out of my way to find out.
I still identify wild carrot visually, but always do a sniff test as a final check.