Selinum carvifolia (L) Cambridge Milk-Parsley
NOMENCLATURE
carvifolia: leaves resemble Carum carvi.
OTHER NAMES : false milk-parsley.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: erect glabrous perennial. H. AROMA: of parsley
STEM: solid, grooved and strongly angled, the angles narrowly winged. HEIGHT 100cm.
UMBELS: 3-7 cm diam. Compound, terminal, usually 15-25 unequal rays 1.5-4cm,
papillose on the angles. Peduncle > than rays, papillose on the angles near the top.
LEAVES: 2-3 pinnate, lanceolate in outline, the lobes 3-10mm, entire to pinnatifid, linear-
lancolate to ovate, minutely serrate, sometimes lobed, with an acute cartilaginous apex.
Petiole long, dilated at the base. Cotyledons tapering at base, no petiole.
BRACTS: usually absent, sometimes few, soon falling. Bracteoles 10,
subulate to linear- lancolate = or > than pedicels.
FLOWERS: white. Hermaphrodite. Sepals minute. Styles form a stylopodium. Fl. 7-10.
FRUIT: 3-4 mm ovoid-oblong, dorsally compressed, smooth, commisure narrow.
Mericarps with the 3 dorsal ridges narrowly winged & the lateral broadly winged.
Carpophore present. Vittae solitary. Pedicels 2 x as > as bracteoles, papillose. Styles 2 x as
long as stylopodium, recurved and appressed. Stigma capitate. 2n=22.
HABITAT: fens and damp meadow.
DISTRIBUTION: native, local, Cambridge, Ely. Formerly Nottingham and N. Lincolnshire,
but now extinct there. Most of Europe, except for much of the Mediterranean region.
E. to C.Asia. Introduced to N. America.
