Botanical name
Umbelliferae or apiaceae also known as the umbel family, carrot family, celery family
Features of the parsley family
A lot of members of this family are aromatic herbs. Native worldwide, especially in north temperate regions. The name giving feature is that the tiny flowers are grouped together in umbels.
The plants in this family prefer cool soil and cool climate, so in our garden they grow best from Autumn to Spring. Most of them show hollow stems and have a taproot.
Nearly every member of this family is a great companion plant. Their intense scent helps to confuse pests in our garden and their flowers also attract lots of predatory insects.
Take care, some seriously poisonous plants like hemlock are also members of the parsley family, you wouldn’t find them in our garden though. All parts of the plants from this family that we grow in the garden are perfectly safe to eat.
Species we grow
Carrot, coriander, fennel, lovage, parsley, parsnip
Other common plants in this family
Anise, caraway, celery, celeriac, chervil, cumin and dill, but also very toxic herbs like hemlock and fool’s parsley are members of this family.