Common Name: CARROT FAMILY
Habit: Annual to perennial herb [shrub, tree], generally from taproot. Stem: generally +- scapose, generally ribbed, hollow. Leaf: basal and generally cauline, generally alternate; stipules generally 0; petiole base generally sheathing stem; blade generally much dissected, occasionally compound. Inflorescence: umbel or head, simple or compound, generally peduncled; bracts present in involucres or 0; bractlets generally present in "involucels". Flower: many, small, generally bisexual (or some staminate), generally radial (or outer bilateral); calyx 0 or lobes 5, small; petals 5, free, generally ovate or spoon-shaped, generally incurved at tips, generally +- ephemeral; stamens 5; pistil 1, ovary inferior, 2-chambered, generally with a +- conic, persistent projection or platform at tip subtending 2 free styles. Fruit: 2 dry, 1-seeded halves (= mericarps), separating from each other but generally +- persistent to central axis; ribs on halves 5, 2 marginal, 3 to back; oil tubes 1--several per interval between ribs.
Genera In Family: 300 genera, 3000 species: +- worldwide, especially temperate; many cultivated for food or spice (e.g., Carum, caraway; Daucus; Petroselinum); Bupleurum lancifolium Hornem. is historical garden weed; some toxic (e.g., Conium). Note: Mature fruit generally critical in identification, shape given in outline. Hydrocotyle moved to Araliaceae, Orogenia moved to Lomatium, Sphenosciadium moved to Angelica. Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) A.W. Hill is a waif.
eFlora Treatment Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Habit: Biennial, perennial herb, rhizomed or tap- or tuberous-rooted, glabrous or minutely scabrous. Stem: generally spreading to erect. Leaf: blade oblong-ovate to obovate, entire to ternately, palmately, or pinnately lobed, dissected, or compound. Inflorescence: heads simple, in cymes or racemes, dense, of bisexual and staminate (staminate only) flowers; bracts entire or lobed, < to > heads; bisexual flowers pedicelled or not, staminate generally long-pedicelled. Flower: calyx lobes prominent, persistent, occasionally fused; petals wide, yellow, purple, or +- white (pale red-orange), tips narrowed, generally lobed; styles long or short; ovary tip projection 0. Fruit: oblong-ovate to round, +- compressed side-to-side; fruit-halves +- cylindric, prickly to scaly or tubercled; ribs 0; oil tubes evident or obscure, regularly or irregularly arranged; fruit central axis not obvious. Seed: face flat or grooved.
Etymology: (Latin: to heal)
eFlora Treatment Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Reference: [Bell 1954 Univ Calif Publ Bot 27:133--230]