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: Perennial herb, taprooted. Stem: generally 0 or short. Leaf: generally basal, membranous to +- leathery or fleshy; blade oblong to widely ovate or round, palmately or pinnately lobed to 1--2-pinnately or -ternate-pinnately dissected or compound, segments or leaflets linear to obovate, entire to variously lobed, generally spine-tipped. Inflorescence: umbels compound, generally terminal, scapose, open to spheric, dense, peduncled; bracts, bractlets conspicuous, scarious (or 0); rays few to many, occasionally 0, pedicels occasionally 0. Flower: calyx lobes prominent to 0; petals oblong to obovate, white, yellow, or purple, tips narrowed; ovary tip projection 0. Fruit: oblong to ovate, +- cylindric to compressed front-to-back; ribs unequal[equal], marginal, some or all thin- or corky-winged (some or all wingless); oil tubes 1--several per rib-interval; fruit axis 0 or divided to base. Seed: face flat to longitudinally concave or grooved.
Etymology: (Greek: wave wing) Toxicity: Some species outside California are TOXIC to livestock. Note: Generic boundaries fluctuating.
eFlora Treatment Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax
Reference: [Mathias 1930 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 17:213--476]