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 or roots tuberous; glabrous to hairy. Stem: 0 or short. Leaf: blade oblong to obovate, 1--2-pinnate or -ternate, leaflets wide, margins entire to pinnately lobed. Inflorescence: umbels compound, terminal; peduncle generally > leaf; bracts generally 0; involucel 1-sided; bractlets inconspicuous to leaf-like; rays, pedicels few to many, ascending to reflexed, generally few fertile. Flower: calyx lobes occasionally 0; petals wide, yellow, tips narrowed; styles slender; ovary tip projection inconspicuous. Fruit: oblong to round, +- compressed side-to-side, glabrous; ribs prominent to thread-like, +- equal, unwinged; oil tubes several per rib-interval; fruit axis generally divided +- to base. Seed: face generally grooved or concave.
Etymology: (I.F. Tausch, Czech botanist, 1793--1848)
eFlora Treatment Author: Lincoln Constance & Margriet Wetherwax