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. 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, from taproot or generally deep-seated tuber, glabrous to tomentose. Stem: 0 or erect, simple or branched; base fibrous or not. Leaf: blade oblong to triangular-ovate or obovate, ternately, pinnately, or ternate-pinnately dissected or compound, segments or leaflets thread-like to wide; old basal leaf sheaths fibrous-persistent or not. Inflorescence: umbels compound, peduncled; bracts generally 0; bractlets generally present, 0 to conspicuous; rays, pedicels spreading to erect, generally webbed at base. Flower: calyx lobes generally 0; petals wide, yellow, white, or purple, tips narrowed; ovary tip projection 0. Fruit: linear to obovate, compressed front-to-back; marginal ribs widely to narrowly thin or thick-winged, others thread-like; oil tubes 1--several per rib-interval; fruit axis divided to base. Seed: face flat to concave.
Species In Genus: +- 75 species: central and southern North America. Etymology: (Greek: bordered, from prominent marginal fruit wing) Note: Fruit wing width given as width of 1 wing, not both together. Lomatium roseanum Cronquist is reported from CaRH, northern SNH, MP.
Habit: Plant 1--4.5 dm; taproot slender, occasionally swollen proximally; herbage +- gray, generally finely hairy. Stem: 0 or short. Leaf: petiole 4--6 cm; blade 3.5--10 cm, oblong to obovate, 2--3-pinnately dissected, segments generally < 3 mm, linear or oblong, pointed, generally crowded; cauline leaves 0 or like basal. Inflorescence: peduncle 0.5--3 dm; bractlets 1--10, linear and free to obovate and +- fused, conspicuously scarious or scarious-margined, +- glabrous; rays 8--22, 1--2.5 cm, unequal, spreading; pedicels 3--10 mm. Flower: corolla white to cream. Fruit: 6--11 mm, oblong to round or obovate, densely hairy to glabrous; wings < to > body in width; oil tubes 1--9 per rib-interval. Chromosomes: 2n=22.
Note: Varieties poorly defined.