UK Wildflowers

Apiaceae

The carrot family

Plant family guide

Start with Cow Parsley

Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) is an excellent introduction to Apiaceae. Its white, umbrella-like flower clusters and finely divided leaves show several of the family's classic features.

Apiaceae is also known by its older name Umbelliferae, from the characteristic umbels produced by many members. The family includes familiar food plants and herbs such as carrots, parsnips, celery, parsley, fennel and coriander, but also highly poisonous species such as Hemlock.

Cow Parsley flowering in grassland
Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) shows the airy compound umbels and divided foliage typical of many Apiaceae.

Key family attributes

  • Inflorescences: flowers are usually carried in umbels. In many species these are compound umbels: stalks radiate from one point and each carries a smaller umbellet. Bracts may occur beneath the main umbel or the individual umbellets.
  • Flowers: usually small and mostly bisexual, with five petals and five stamens. The flowers are normally radially symmetrical, although the outer flowers of some umbels have enlarged petals and appear slightly asymmetric.
  • Ovary: typically inferior and formed from two fused carpels. Two styles are usually visible above a swollen nectar-producing base called the stylopodium.
  • Fruit: usually a dry schizocarp which separates at maturity into two one-seeded halves called mericarps. Their ribs, wings, hairs and oil canals are often important identification features.
  • Leaves: usually alternate and commonly compound or deeply divided. The leaf stalk often broadens into a conspicuous sheath where it meets the stem, while true stipules are usually absent.
  • Stems and scent: many members are aromatic herbs and hollow or furrowed stems are common, but neither character is universal.

Features to look for in the field

Umbels within umbels

Look at how the flower stalks branch. In a compound umbel, several rays leave one point and each ray ends in a smaller umbellet. This repeated umbrella pattern is one of the family's strongest field clues.

Sheathing leaf bases

Follow a leaf stalk back to the stem. In many Apiaceae the petiole widens into a sheath that partly surrounds the stem. This can be useful when flowers are absent.

Two-part fruits

After flowering, examine mature fruits. The typical Apiaceae fruit eventually separates into two mericarps. Fruit shape and surface detail are often more reliable than flower colour for separating similar species.

Look closely at Cow Parsley

  • Follow the rays: each broad white flower head is a compound umbel made from many smaller umbellets.
  • Check the foliage: the leaves are repeatedly pinnate, producing their characteristic fresh-green, fern-like appearance.
  • Check the stem: it is hollow and usually ridged, and lacks the conspicuous purple blotches typical of Hemlock.
  • Look later in the season: the flowers are replaced by narrow fruits which mature into the family's characteristic two mericarps.

A recognisable family — but one that needs care

Many Apiaceae share a recognisable combination of divided leaves and umbrella-shaped flower heads, but species can still be surprisingly difficult to separate. Cow Parsley, Hemlock, Rough Chervil, Wild Carrot and several other white-flowered species can look similar from a distance.

Some members of the family are valuable foods and herbs, while others are dangerously poisonous. For identification, use several characters together: leaves, stem surface, bracts, flowering time, habitat and especially mature fruits. Never identify an umbellifer for eating from flower shape alone.

Other familiar Apiaceae

British and cultivated members include Wild Carrot, Hogweed, Hemlock, Hemlock Water-dropwort, Angelica, Alexanders, Fennel, Parsley, Celery and Parsnip. Their overall appearance varies, but the shared floral and fruit structure reveals their relationship.

Apiaceae flowers in this guide

Explore the individual flower pages for more photographs and identification details.

Cow Parsley

Anthriscus sylvestris

Family: Apiaceae

Flowering: April, May, June

Cow Parsley flowering in a grassy meadow

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