Petroselinum segetum (L) Koch Corn Parsley
NOMENCLATURE
Petroselenium: see P. crispum.
segetum: of cornfields. (seges: corn, crop).
PREV. NAME: Carum segetum: (Bentham ex Hooker fil)
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: glabrous, glaucous biennial or annual .Hs. HEIGHT: 30-100cm
AROMA Parsley. ROOTS: tap root, slender, fusiform.
STEM: striate, terete, solid, divaricate. UMBELS: 1-5cm, Compound, with 3-10 smooth,
unequal rays 3cm. Peduncle >than the rays. Partial umbel of 3-5 f is.
LEAVES: simply pinnate. Near base of plant. Linear-oblong in outline. Lobes 4-12 pairs,
suborbicular to lanceolate, serrate or shallow lobed, sub sessile, 0.5-3.5 cm, the obtuse teeth
with a cartilaginous margin and mucro of 0.5mm. Petiole slender, not dilated at base.
BRACTS: and bracteoles 2-5, subulate.
FLOWERS : white, subsessile to long pedicellate. Hermaphrodite.
Sepals small. Styles forming a stylopodium. Fl. 8-9.
FRUIT: 2.5-3 mm, ovoid, laterally compressed, smooth. Commisure narrow.
Mericarps: prominent stout ridges. Carpophore present. Vittae solitary. Pedicels short
or 15mm. Styles < than stylopodium, divergent. Stigma a small knob. 2n=18.
HABITAT: arable fields, hedge banks, river banks,
dry banks, brackish grassland, near sea.
DISTRIBUTION: native. S.& E. England, Kent, N to the Humber, few coastal localities
in Wales. W. Europe from Netherland to Portugal. E. to C. Italy. Rare, decreasing.
