Habit: Biennial, taprooted; herbage glabrous, musty-scented.
Stem: erect, branched.
Leaf: blade ovate to triangular-ovate, pinnately dissected or compound, segments or leaflets lanceolate or oblong to ovate, serrate to 1--2-pinnately lobed.
Inflorescence: umbels compound, terminal, lateral; bracts, bractlets small, few; rays, pedicels +- many, spreading-ascending.
Flower: calyx lobes 0; petals wide, +- white, tips narrowed.
Fruit: ovoid to spheric, +- compressed side-to-side; ribs +- equal, low; oil tubes 0; fruit axis divided to base.
Seed: face grooved.
Species In Genus: +- 6 species: Europe, southern Africa.
Etymology: (Greek name used by Dioscorides)
Toxicity: TOXIC: highly toxic alkaloids used in ancient Greece for capital punishment (e.g., Socrates); many human deaths, rarely eaten by livestock.
Jepson eFlora Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)
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