NOMENCLATURE
Peucadanum: see P. ostrithiurn.
OTHER NAMES: Moench’s hog’s fennel.
BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION
TYPE: glabrous perennial with watery latex in young parts. Es. HEIGHT: 50-150cm.
ROOTS: has a yellow foetid gum resin. STEMS: hollow, grooved & angled, often purplish.
UMBELS: 3-8cm diam. Compound, 15-40 unequal rays 1.5-5 cm. Papillose-puberulent on the inner side. Peduncle > than rays, scabrid on top. Terminal hermaphrodite. Lateral hermaphrodite and male.
LEAVES: lower 2-4 pinnate, lanceolate ovate. Segments, pinnatifid, lobes 0.5-2cm oblong- lanceolate to ovate, subacute with finely serrulate cartilaginous margin & apex, acute. Petiole long, strongly canaliculate above, puberulent below, short brown or purple, usually auriculate sheathing base. Upper leaves smaller,
less divided with entirely sheathing short petiole. Cotyledons contracted into a petiole.
BRACTS: 4 or more, linear lanceolate or divided, deflexed. Bracteoles several,
linear-lanceolate, deflexed. = or < papillose pedicels.
FLOWERS: greenish-white. Sepals obtuse. Styles form a stylopodium. Fl. 7-9.
FRUIT: 4-5 mm, elliptical, dorsally compressed, fine white webbing on vittae. Commisure broad. Mericarps: prominent dorsal ridges, lateral ridges, narrow, flat wings closely appressed, thick. Carpophore present. Vittae solitary. Pedicels > than fruit, papillose. Styles > than stylopodium recurved. Stigma capitate. 2n=22
HABITAT: fens, marshes.
DISTRIBUTION: native, local. East Anglia, scattered in S. England. Europe to C. Asia.
