Chervil or Fool's parsley: how to tell them apart?
Chervil and Fool's parsley look alike and are often mixed up. Here is how to tell them apart, feature by feature, with their photos and the details to look for.
⚡ The quick answer
Chervil
Anthriscus cerefolium
Fool's parsley
Aethusa cynapium
Chervil gives off a characteristic aniseed scent when crushed, whereas fool's parsley has a foul, unpleasant smell and bears long drooping bracteoles beneath each umbel. These are good clues, but if in the slightest doubt, never eat a wild member of the carrot family.
🍃 Leaves
Very finely divided, tender leaves, light green, with an aniseed scent
Finely divided, soft, resembling those of chervil or parsley, giving off a foul smell when crushed
🌸 Flowers
Small white flowers in simple, inconspicuous umbels
Small white flowers in umbels, with long, drooping bracteoles beneath each umbellule
🍎 Fruits
Small, elongated, smooth black achenes
Small, strongly ribbed, ovoid fruits
🪵 Bark
Hollow, upright herbaceous stem, finely striated
Annual herbaceous plant with a hollow, ridged stem, often marked with reddish lines at the base
📏 Size
20 to 60 cm tall
30 cm to 1 m tall
🗺️ Habitat
Vegetable gardens, waste ground, track verges
Vegetable gardens, crops, rubble, waste ground
⚠️ Toxicity
Non-toxic; a classic culinary herb, but can be confused with toxic members of the carrot family (fool's parsley) if wrongly identified.
Toxic in all its parts (leaves, flowers, fruits), contains alkaloids similar to those of hemlock. Causes digestive and neurological disorders if ingested. Never eat a wild member of the Apiaceae without absolute certainty of its identification.
🔎 And from the Fool's parsley side
Fool's parsley gives off a foul, unpleasant smell when crushed, very different from the aniseed scent of chervil, and bears long, drooping bracts beneath each umbel that chervil does not have. These are good clues, but if in the slightest doubt, never eat a wild member of the Apiaceae.
🌿 Go further
Want to practise spotting these details on real photos? Floraneo offers profiles and quizzes for dozens of look-alike species.
ℹ️ Educational profile — do not use it to judge whether a plant is edible or safe.