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.

Common Name: POISON HEMLOCK
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.
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.
eFlora Treatment Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax