Iowa
Iowa wildflower Wednesday: Poison hemlock
Radio Iowa reported on June 14 that Hancock County Weed Commissioner Jason Lackore “is sounding the alarm” after finding poison hemlock in two public areas upstream from sites where cattle producers let their animals graze.
“If it was any other plant, I wouldn’t be making such a fuss, but this plant — all parts are extremely poisonous to humans, domestic animals,” Lackore said. “And you hear a lot about livestock, cattle, ingesting small amounts. It’s fatal.”
Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) is best known as an ancient method of execution, used to kill the Greek philosopher Socrates. This European native has unfortunately spread across the U.S. and is prevalent in Iowa. I see it almost every day while walking my dog. I took all of the photos enclosed below less than a mile from my home in Windsor Heights.
Habitats where poison hemlock thrives “include edges of degraded wetlands and prairies, low-lying areas along small rivers, banks of drainage ditches, thickets, woodland borders, fence rows, low-lying areas along railroads and roads, pastures, and abandoned fields.” You will mostly likely find it on disturbed ground, such as near railroad tracks or pavement. This patch is growing next to the parking lot behind the “Sherwood Forest” strip mall on Hickman Road.
That purple sign reads “prairie restoration.” It went up around twelve years ago, when a local student seeded a prairie patch in this area for his Eagle Scout project. Unfortunately, with no one maintaining the plantings, the field became overrun with invasive plants within a few years. I rarely see prairie species there anymore.
There’s no natural check on poison hemlock; according to Illinois Wildflowers, “Mammalian herbivores won’t touch the foliage because of its bitter rank odor and extreme toxicity.”
Like wild carrot, which it resembles, and other members of the parsley family, these plants are on a two-year cycle. Basal leaves grow during the first year, and the flowering stalk appears the following year.
The next image shows the plant in its first year.
In the second year, poison hemlock plants typically reach heights of three to eight feet. I’ve seen them much smaller, though; this one was barely one foot tall.
Some native plants—such as common elderberry and cow parsnip—also have clusters (umbels) of small white flowers blooming in May or June across Iowa. But the leaves and flower clusters on those plants look quite different.
Minnesota Wildflowers notes another distinguishing feature of poison hemlock: “The main stem is light green and covered in purple spots.” You can see a splotchy stem on the right side of this image.
After the blooming period, the foliage turns yellow, and the stems may look mostly red, rather than splotchy.
I struggle to photograph poison hemlock flowers, which “span only 1/8″ (3 mm.) across when they are fully open.” This plant has buds on the verge of opening as well as clusters of flowers in full bloom.
More flowers open:
Getting a clear view of the green fruit as it develops is also challenging. These plants have some clusters of flowers open and other clusters of green seed pods.
Eradicating poison hemlock is not easy. Illinois Wildflowers advises, “In removing this plant from a given area, don’t pull it out using your bare hands. It is better to wear washable gloves while hand-pulling a limited number of plants. For large areas of infestation, it is best to apply broadleaf herbicides or mow down the plants during the spring shortly before they develop flowers.”
Nadia Hassani wrote on The Spruce website,
Small first-year seedlings can be removed by hand. After a rain when the soil is moist is best to remove the entire tap root. You might have to use a trowel or a shovel if the rosette is already big.
If you are dealing with a heavy infestation and a large area, mowing the infestation repeatedly helps to weaken the plants. Mowing must be done in the early summer before the plant has set seeds, otherwise you are dispersing the seeds even more. Mowing in the late summer after poison hemlock has gone into see[d] also poses a greater health hazard.
If you cannot get the infestation under control manually, it is best to use a broad-spectrum herbicide in the first year of the plant’s life cycle.7 Keep in mind that it will also kill all the other plants so apply it in a highly targeted way and when there is no wind to avoid herbicide drift. Applying an herbicide does not prevent seeds that are already in the soil from germinating (poison hemlock seeds remain viable for up to six years)8 so you will likely have to repeat the herbicide application when new seedlings emerge.
I hate to advocate for herbicide in any context. But look what can happen if you don’t get poison hemlock under control. This colony is growing in a retention basin just steps away from the parking lot of Clive elementary school, my alma mater (which is now called Clive Learning Academy). I’m talking about the taller plants that are turning yellow.
Here’s the view from the other direction. I believe the poison hemlock surrounding that cluster of eastern cottonwood trees in the background likely provided the seed base for the plants now growing in the retention basin. I’ve seen poison hemlock around those trees since I learned to identify the plant a decade or so ago.
As I mentioned above, poison hemlock does well on disturbed ground, so this European invader would have easily found a foothold after the West Des Moines school district built a circle drive behind Clive school.
Moving closer to those trees, which are growing next to the bike trail that runs through Windsor Heights along North Walnut Creek, you can see the poison hemlock more clearly.
DES MOINES, Iowa (Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau) — U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson told Gray Media Iowa that he got briefed late Thursday afternoon, a few hours before President Donald Trump gave a prime-time speech to make his latest claims about election fraud.
“Yeah, I just got off of a telephone call literally in the motorcade as we were driving here,” Johnson said after arriving at a campaign appearance with U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R – 1st District, Ottumwa) at a Pella bakery.
Miller-Meeks is running for re-election in what is again considered a competitive race with Democrat Christina Bohannan, a University of Iowa law professor from Iowa City.
This is the third straight election that the two will meet in a general election.
Johnson said the “off the record” intelligence briefing to leaders in the U.S. House and Senate previewed Trump’s new election fraud claims. He called it “blockbuster information.”
“It’s the result of an investigation that’s been ongoing for some time now about fraud and irregularity in in federal elections, American elections around the country,” Johnson said.
Gray Media Iowa asked Johnson whether he believes congressional colleagues were elected because of fraud.
He did not directly answer that question.
“…everybody’s going to be able to evaluate all that information on their own, and it will lead to other investigations, I’m certain,” Johnson said of the briefing.
He added, “we’ll have to see where all this goes.”
For years, Trump has alleged widespread fraud that cost him the 2020 election. Trump has lost dozens of court cases on the matter.
On January 7, 2021, Congress certified his defeat to Democrat Joe Biden, a day after Trump supporters rushed the U.S. Capitol Building. Some attacked law enforcement officers and damaged the outside and inside of the building.
After returning to office in 2025, President Trump pardoned supporters for their crimes.
Copyright 2026 Gray Media Iowa State Capitol Bureau. All rights reserved.
With the college football season right around the corner, the Iowa State Cyclones will be hoping to have a strong campaign with a new regime coming in. However, a lot of their success might depend on one key player.
Following the departure of Matt Campbell to the Penn State Nittany Lions, the Cyclones saw their roster get completely gutted. Most of their players entered the transfer portal, leaving new head coach Jimmy Rogers with plenty of work to do.
Fortunately, Rogers and the coaching staff were able to get out there and bring in a lot of new players from all over the country. While Iowa State might be lacking star power and aren’t going to be as talented as they were last year, they do have a good amount of depth.
There should be quite a bit of competition for spots in camp, but there are some players who should clearly be starters that transferred in.
Pete Nakos of On3 recently predicted who would be the starting quarterback for every team in the Big 12. Unsurprisingly for the Cyclones, it was Jaylen Raynor who was the choice.
Raynor an Easy Pick
After bringing in the three-year starter from the Arkansas State Red Wolves, Raynor instantly became the favorite to be the starter for the Cyclones in Week 1. Him being predicted as that guy should come as no surprise, and his ability to play against elevated competition on a weekly basis will be key.
There is a lot to like about Raynor’s game, and he could certainly help Iowa State exceed expectations next year.
Last season with the Red Wolves, he totaled 3,361 passing yards, 19 passing touchdowns, and a 66.5 completion percentage. It was career-highs for him in all three of those categories, showing some nice improvement in his junior season.
As a dual-threat player, he also totaled a career-high in rushing yards and rushing touchdowns. The junior recorded 423 yards on the ground to go along with seven rushing scores.
Overall, the numbers for Raynor were really solid, and there is reason to believe he might be even better in his senior season. For the Cyclones, with all of the new players on the roster, there will undoubtedly be some competition for starting spots around the field. However, it should certainly be Raynor who is under center to start.
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Syringes from injectable weight loss medications are turning up in drug drop-off boxes across eastern Iowa, creating a safety hazard for law enforcement officers who handle the containers.
Sgt. Erich Lear of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office said emptying the drug drop-off box is part of his daily routine — and the box fills fast.
“It’s probably a 30-gallon tote, and I’d say 3 out of the five days of the week it’s completely full,” Lear said.
Needles found mixed in with other medications
Lear said he has noticed over the past five years that people are placing medicine, nasal sprays and syringes in the bin. He said many of the syringes come from people discarding GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Wegovy.
“That tote that I pull out — there’s nothing that protects me from needles other than my observation and using gloves when I sort through things,” Lear said.
The Hiawatha Police Department said it is also seeing an increase in improperly discarded syringes.
Where syringes should go
The Cedar Rapids Linn County Solid Waste Agency is the proper disposal site for sharps. The agency said it has seen syringe intake increase by more than a ton in recent years.
“We’re talking about two thousand pounds of sharps and syringes coming in,” said Joe Horaney of the solid waste agency. “Before 2021 we were around 1.9, maybe 2 tons a year — now we are over 3 tons a year.”
Horaney said any Linn County resident can bring syringes to the facility, provided they are contained properly.
“We just ask that you have it in a heavy plastic container — so one of those medically certified red biohazard containers,” Horaney said. “If you don’t have that, it can be a heavy plastic container like an old laundry detergent [bottle].”
A third-party company picks up the sharps from the facility and incinerates them.
Some drop-off programs discontinued
Lear said another reason sharps are appearing at drop-off locations is that some agencies have ended their disposal programs. The Marion Police Department said it stopped offering the service after people continued to place broken glass, liquids and other garbage inside the box.
Copyright 2026 KCRG. All rights reserved.
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