White Flower Celery Family Identification

Apiaceae, the celery family, includes several culinary and medicinal plants such as dill, carrot, coriander, fennel and angelica. The easiest way to identify members of this family is to look at there flowers. But the vegetation will also help you a little.

Umbel

Umbel

You can recognize plants of the family Apiaceae by its slightly convex to flat-topped inflorescence (cluster of flowers) called an umbel. Each of the flowers in this cluster is attached by a short stem to the end of the peduncle (flower stalk).

Petals and Sepals

Each flower has five small white, yellow or pink petals. The calyx (the little cup of usually green leaves called sepals in which the petals of most other flowers rest) is very small in this family, and it may be absent altogether.

Five Stamens

The plants of this family have five stamens per flower. A stamen is a male flower part that bears egg-fertilizing pollen at its tip.

The Ovary

In this family, the ovary with its eggs is buried out of sight in the tissue at the end of the stem on which the flower rests. For this reason, the flower is said to be "epigynous" (lying above the female part) and the ovary is called "inferior" because it is below the rest of the flower.

The Fruit

The fruit of Apiaceae is a schizocarp, which is two capsules attached to one another with each capsule containing a seed. The two capsules eventually separate, and the wind blows them away.

Vegetative Factors

The vegetation of Apiaceae is less helpful in identification that the inflorescence. Plants of this family usually have hollow stems between the points where leaves are attached (called nodes); leaves are often divided like in celery, and they usually are not paired.

References

• The Seed Site: APIACEAE (formerly UMBELLIFERAE) - The Celery Family
• The Chest Of Books: Order XLIII. Umbelliferae. (Parsley Family.)
• Cambridge Journals: DELIMITATION OF GENERA IN APIACEAE WITH EXAMPLES FROM SCANDICEAE SUBTRIBE SCANDICINAE
• "Botany: An Ecological Approach," William A. Jensen & Frank B. Salisbury, 1972, p. 540
• Colorado State University: Eryngium: Sea Holly

Resources

• IPCS INCHEM: Conium maculatum L.