The humble umbel

Jun 14 2005 By The Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SEVERAL times I have highlighted how the plant world is divided by a number of different identifiable factors.

One of the more scientific divisions is into family groups by comparing the structure of the flowers.

The daisy family and the rose family are two which most people can recognise.

The Umbel family, Umbelliferae (syn Apiaceae), is just as easy to recognise, when the plants are flowering and we have seen the tall white cow parsley flowering in the hedgerows recently as a commonly recognised example of this family. The flowers are often said to be like the framework of an umbrella (the names originate from the Latin words umbella, a sunshade and umbra, a shade).

Once you start to research the Umbel family, it is surprising how many popular plants, grown for food or flowers belong to it.

Our common carrot, Daucus carota and all the hybrids produced over the years, belongs to the family and perfectly demonstrates some of the typical family features, such as a biennial life cycle, pinnate or bipinnate leaves and a long tap root.

Normally we do not see the flowers as we harvest the carrots before they complete their biennial life cycle.

Leave a carrot in the ground over winter and you will see the typical umbel flowers produced in the summer. A close relative, the parsnip, Pastinaca, will demonstrate the same cycle.

Another common vegetable is celery, Apium, with its over-developed leaf petioles, and parsley is another of the family's vast range of edible plants.

Carum carvi, the caraway, is one of the popular herbs used in trendy cooking and of course, the fennel, Foeniculum has uses with its foliage, stems and leaves.

Another aniseed-flavoured herb is Dill, Anethumand lovage, Levisticum also has culinary uses.

Coriander, Coriandrum is an annual member of the family, producing large quantities of seed for cooking by the end of summer.

The crystallised stems of Angelica were put into Christmas cakes when I was a child.

Sweet cicely, Myrrhis odorata has aniseed-scented foliage but can also be grown for its display of pure white umbel flowers in early summer. A wild member of the family that produces edible tubers on its roots is the pignut, Conopodium, which is common in roadside verges - the tubers have a hazelnut taste.

Among the ornamental plants in the Umbel family is Astrantia that is grown for its delightful papery pink and green flower heads in mid-summer.

The typical umbel flowers are not as obvious as they are hidden among the colourful bracts and this feature is repeated in Eryngiums (sea hollies) that can be seen growing wild on the sand dunes around our coasts. It is now a popular garden plant, as much for its blue-green foliage as its silvery-blue flower heads.

Chaerophyllum, the common chervil has produced one or two interesting variants over the years and there is now a red flowered form called C. hirsutum Roseum that is worth searching out.

We must not forget that the family has several members that we could do without.

Among the worst to get into our gardens is ground elder, Aegopodium podagaria, with a reputation for being hard to eradicate.

Roots have been found up to 3 metres (10ft) deep and can emerge through concrete and tarmac with ease. Like several other examples of Victorian plant mania, Heracleum mantegazzianum, the giant hogweed, when it was introduced in the mid 19th century seemed harmless and was planted around lakesides in larger country properties for its bold foliage and flowers.

Even when it jumped the garden fence into the wild, little notice was taken of it but, in 1970 large numbers of children were taken to hospital casualty departments with strange circular blisters. Since identifying the giant hogweed as the culprit, local authorities and estate managers have been battling to dispose of a foreign invader that can reach up to 4 metres (13ft) by mid summer and can shed up to 5,000 seeds per plant by the end of summer.

So, the next time you use coriander, parsley or fennel in your cooking or eat carrots and parsnips with your Sunday roast, remember that the humble umbel is not so humble after all.