DOG walkers in Helensburgh and Lomond are being asked to take extra care after several reports of potentially poisonous hemlock plants washing up on shorelines.

Ingesting just a small amount of the herbaceous species of flowering plant, which belongs to the carrot family, can prove fatal to humans and animals.

Pet owners are being urged to look out for the poisonous plants after several social media users spotted some on beaches in Rosneath, Garelochhead, Helensburgh and Craigendoran.

It has a distinctive repellent smell when its leaves are crushed, and its purple-spotted stems are dangerous.