Anthriscus sylvestris

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Anthriscus sylvestris
Anthriscus sylvestris TK 2021-05-16 2.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae
Genus: Anthriscus
Species:
A. sylvestris
Binomial name
Anthriscus sylvestris
Synonyms [1]
Synonyms list
    • Anthriscus alpina(Vill.) Jord.
    • Anthriscus candolleiRouy & E.G.Camus
    • Anthriscus chaerophyllea(Lam.) Druce
    • Anthriscus dissectusC.H.Wright
    • Anthriscus elatiorBesser
    • Anthriscus intermediaSchur
    • Anthriscus keniensisH.Wolff
    • Anthriscus laevigataGriseb.
    • Anthriscus nemorosaBaker & S.Moore nom. illeg.
    • Anthriscus pilosaSchur
    • Anthriscus proceraBesser
    • Anthriscus torquataDuby
    • Anthriscus yunnanensisW.W.Sm.
    • Carum sylvestre(L.) Baill.
    • Caucalis aequicolorumAll.
    • Cerefolium sylvestre(L.) Bubani
    • Cerefolium tenuifoliumBeck
    • Chaerefolium sylvestre(L.) Schinz
    • Chaerophyllum affineSteud. ex A.Rich.
    • Chaerophyllum alpinumVill.
    • Chaerophyllum angulatumKit. ex Spreng.
    • Chaerophyllum ateanum(Pau) Pau
    • Chaerophyllum cadonenseSchult. ex Steud.
    • Chaerophyllum ghilanicumStapf & Wettst.
    • Chaerophyllum infestumSalisb.
    • Chaerophyllum lactescensRochel ex Steud.
    • Chaerophyllum sylvestreL.
    • Chaerophyllum tumidumGilib. nom. inval.
    • Myrrhis chaerophylloidesHance
    • Myrrhis sylvestris(L.) Spreng.
    • Oreochorte yunnanensis(W.W. Sm.) Koso-Pol.
    • Peucedanum dissectum(C.H. Wright) Dawe

Anthriscus sylvestris, known as cow parsley, [2] wild chervil, [2] wild beaked parsley, Queen Anne's lace or keck, [2] [3] is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), [4] genus Anthriscus . It is also sometimes called mother-die (especially in the UK), a name that is also applied to the common hawthorn. It is native to Europe, western Asia and northwestern Africa. It is related to other diverse members of Apiaceae, such as parsley, carrot, hemlock and hogweed. It is often confused with Daucus carota , another member of the Apiaceae also known as "Queen Anne's lace" or "wild carrot". [5]

Contents

Description

Cow parsley is an upright herbaceous (non-woody) perennial, growing to 60–170 centimetres (24–67 inches) tall. The stems are hollow, striate (striped with parallel, longitudinal lines), furrowed, and green in colour with flushes of purple, with a diameter up to 1.5 cm (0.59 in). It has tiny hairs on the stem, rachis, and leaf stalks which are difficult to see but can easily be detected by touch. The petioles clasp the stem around the base and are broad and flattened with a downy margin. The rachis has a deep grooved channel.

The leaves are triangular, 2–3 pinnate, roughly 30 cm wide and 45 cm long, green, and fern-like or feathery in appearance with hair on the underside. The lowest primary division is much smaller than the rest of the leaf. [6] [7]

The flowers are arranged in compound umbels on short pedicels (<1 cm) with a ring of short, stout hairs at the apex. [8] There are downy oval bractioles with red pointy tips on the umblets, arranged on 4–10 rays 1.5–3 cm long. The rays are glabrous (smooth and hairless), with no bract present. Peduncles are similar in length to rays, more or less glabrous and furrowed. Each flower has 5 white petals, 2 stamens and 2 styles with an enlarged base forming a swelling at the apex of the ovary (stylopodium). [9]

The main stem meets the roots in a single primary taproot which can branch further below the surface. From the roots lateral rhizomes can form. Flowering time in the UK is April to early June. [10]

Habitat

Cow parsley grows in sunny to semi-shaded locations in meadows and at the edges of hedgerows and woodland. It is a particularly common sight by the roadside and with its frothy early-flowering white blooms is regarded as the most important springtime landscape wildflower in Britain. [11] However, the plant is also sufficiently common and fast-growing to be considered a nuisance weed in gardens. Cow parsley's ability to spread rapidly by means of rhizomes and to produce large quantities of seeds in a single growing season has made it an invasive species in many areas of the United States. Vermont has listed cow parsley on its "Watch List" of invasive species, while Massachusetts has banned the sale of the plant. [12] It is classed as a Class B Noxious Weed in the State of Washington since 1989, [5] where its sale is also banned. In Iceland, cow parsley has been classified as an alien invasive species. [13]

Uses

All above-ground parts of the cow parsley plant are edible, with a flavour sharper than garden chervil and described as grassy parsley, with a hint of licorice or aniseed. However, it is suspected of being mildly toxic according to some sources. [14] The plant is an invasive species in many places outside of its native range. It spreads easily along roads and the edges of woods and fields, so it is not cultivated but instead foraged in the wild. In the UK it is foraged from February to November. However extreme caution is advised when foraging cow parsley because it is easily confused with other species of the Apiaceae family, such as the deadly poison hemlock, hemlock water-dropwort and fool's parsley. Because the plant's flavour is considered unremarkable and the risk is great, foraging cow parsley in the wild is usually strongly discouraged. [15] :64

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apiaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus Apium and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plants, with more than 3,800 species in about 446 genera, including such well-known and economically important plants as ajwain, angelica, anise, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, chervil, coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, lovage, cow parsley, parsley, parsnip and sea holly, as well as silphium, a plant whose exact identity is unclear and which may be extinct.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chervil</span> Species of plants

Chervil, sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil, is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It was formerly called myrhis due to its volatile oil with an aroma similar to the resinous substance myrrh. It is commonly used to season mild-flavoured dishes and is a constituent of the French herb mixture fines herbes.

<i>Daucus carota</i> Species of flowering plant

Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World and was naturalized in the New World.

<i>Oenanthe</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants in the umbellifer family Apiaceae

Oenanthe, known as water dropworts, oenanthes, water parsleys, and water celeries, are a genus of plants in the family Apiaceae. Most of the species grow in damp ground, such as in marshes or in water.

<i>Aegopodium podagraria</i> Species of flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae

Aegopodium podagraria, commonly called ground elder, is a species of flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae that grows in shady places. The name "ground elder" comes from the superficial similarity of its leaves and flowers to those of elder (Sambucus), which is not closely related. Other common names include herb gerard, bishop's weed, goutweed, gout wort, snow-in-the-mountain, English masterwort and wild masterwort. It is the type species of the genus Aegopodium. It is native to Europe and Asia, but has been introduced around the world as an ornamental plant, where it occasionally poses an ecological threat as an invasive exotic plant.

<i>Heracleum mantegazzianum</i> Species of flowering plant

Heracleum mantegazzianum, commonly known as giant hogweed, is a monocarpic perennial herbaceous plant in the carrot family Apiaceae. H. mantegazzianum is also known as cartwheel-flower, giant cow parsley, giant cow parsnip, or hogsbane. In New Zealand, it is also sometimes called wild parsnip or wild rhubarb.

<i>Anthriscus</i> Genus of flowering plants

Anthriscus (chervils) is a common plant genus of the family Apiaceae, growing in Europe and temperate parts of Asia. It comprises 15 species. The genus grows in meadows and verges on slightly wet porous soils. One species, Anthriscus cerefolium is cultivated and used in the kitchen to flavor foods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cicely</span> Genus of flowering plants in the celery family Apiaceae

Myrrhis odorata, with common names cicely, sweet cicely, myrrh, garden myrrh, and sweet chervil, is a herbaceous perennial plant belonging to the celery family Apiaceae. It is the only species in the genus Myrrhis.

<i>Aethusa cynapium</i> Species of flowering plant in the celery family Apiaceae

Aethusa cynapium is an annual herb in the flowering plant family Apiaceae, native to Europe, western Asia, and northwest Africa. It is the only member of the genus Aethusa. It is related to hemlock and water-dropwort, and like them it is poisonous, though less so than hemlock. It has been introduced into many other parts of the world and is a common weed in cultivated ground.

<i>Smyrnium olusatrum</i> Species of flowering plant

Smyrnium olusatrum, common name alexanders is an edible flowering plant of the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae), which grows on waste ground and in hedges around the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastal regions of Europe. It was formerly widely grown as a pot herb, but is now appreciated mostly by foragers.

<i>Scandix pecten-veneris</i> Species of flowering plant

Scandix pecten-veneris is a species of edible plant belonging to the family Apiaceae. It is native to Eurasia, but is known to occur elsewhere. It is named for its long fruit, which has a thickened body up to 1.5 centimeters long and a beak which can measure up to 7 centimeters long and is lined with comblike bristles.

<i>Chaerophyllum temulum</i> Species of plant

Chaerophyllum temulum, the rough chervil, is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae.

<i>Selinum carvifolia</i> Species of plant

Selinum carvifolia is a flowering plant of the genus Selinum in the family Apiaceae. The specific name carvifolia signifies 'having leaves resembling those of Caraway'. It is a plant of fens and damp meadows, growing in most of Europe, with the exception of much of the Mediterranean region, eastwards to Central Asia. Its common name in English is Cambridge milk parsley, because it is confined, in the UK, to the county of Cambridgeshire and closely resembles milk parsley, an umbellifer of another genus, but found in similar habitats. The two plants are not only similar in appearance, but also grow in similar moist habitats, although they may be told apart in the following manner: P. palustre has hollow, often purplish stems, pinnatifid leaf lobes and deflexed bracteoles; while S. carvifolia has solid, greenish stems, entire or sometimes lobed leaf-lobes and erecto-patent bracteoles. Also, when the two plants are in fruit, another difference becomes apparent: the three dorsal ridges on the fruit of S. carvifolia are winged, while those on the fruit of P. palustre are not. Yet a further difference lies in the respective leaflets of the plants : those of Peucedanum palustre are blunt and pale at the tip, while those of Selinum carvifolia are sharply pointed and of a darker green. S. carvifolia used also to occur in the English counties of Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire but is now extinct in both. Growing in only three small Cambridgeshire fens, it is one of England's rarest umbellifers. It is naturalized in the United States, where it is known by the common name little-leaf angelica.

<i>Conium maculatum</i> Poisonous herbaceous plant in the carrot family

Conium maculatum, colloquially known as hemlock, poison hemlock or wild hemlock, is a highly poisonous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. It is herbaceous without woody parts and has a biennial lifecycle. A hardy plant capable of living in a variety of environments, hemlock is widely naturalised in locations outside its native range, such as parts of Australia, West Asia, and North and South America, to which it has been introduced. It is capable of spreading and thereby becoming an invasive weed.

<i>Oenanthe pimpinelloides</i> Species of flowering plant

Oenanthe pimpinelloides is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae known by the common name corky-fruited water-dropwort. It is a plant of damp or dry grassland and more ruderal tall herb communities.

A. sylvestris may refer to:

<i>Epermenia chaerophyllella</i> Species of moth

Epermenia chaerophyllella, also known as the garden lance-wing, is a moth of the family Epermeniidae first described by Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1783. It is found in all of Europe and Asia Minor.

Parsley or garden parsley most often refers to the widely cultivated culinary herb Petroselinum crispum

<i>Oenanthe lachenalii</i> Species of flowering plant

Oenanthe lachenalii, parsley water-dropwort, is a flowering plant in the carrot family, which is native to Europe and parts of North Africa. It is a declining plant of coastal wetlands.

References

  1. The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species , retrieved 20 December 2015
  2. 1 2 3 "Anthriscus sylvestris". Germplasm Resources Information Network . Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture . Retrieved 15 December 2017.
  3. "Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris)". Woodland Trust. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
  4. Webb, D.A., Parnell, J. and Doogue, D. 1996. An Irish Flora. Dundalgan Press Ltd, Dundalk. ISBN   0-85221-131-7
  5. 1 2 "Wild chervil". King County.
  6. Rose, Francis (2006). The Wild Flower Key. London: Frederick Warne. ISBN   978-0-7232-5175-0.
  7. Stace, C.A. (2019). New Flora of the British Isles. Suffolk. ISBN   978-1-5272-2630-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. Tutin, T.G. (1980). Umbellifers of the British Isles. London: Botanical Society of the British Isles.
  9. Sell, Peter; Murrell, Gina (2009). Flora of Great Britain and Ireland, vol 3. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  10. Harper, Lizzie (2021-11-12). "Cow Parsley: All about an Umbellifer". Lizzie Harper | Natural history illustration for books, magazines, and packaging. Retrieved 2022-05-11.
  11. Mabey R. 1996. Flora Britannica. Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN   1-85-619377-2
  12. The Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List. (Accessed 02/07/2022)
  13. Ágengar plöntur (Invasive plants). Náttúrufræðistofnun Íslands (Icelandic Institute of Natural History. Retrieved on May 2nd 2019. (In Icelandic).
  14. Cooper MR, Johnson AW. Poisonous plants in Britain and their effects on animals and man. HM Stationery Office ISBN   0-11-242529-1
  15. Renton, Marlow; Biggane, Eric (2019). Foraging Pocket Guide (2020 ed.). Wild Foods UK. ISBN   978-1-9999222-2-1.