The Apiaceae, commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, are a family of
mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family, which is named after the type
genus Apium, is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera; it is the
16th-largest family of flowering plants. Included in this family are the well-known plants:
angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, Centella asiatica, chervil,
cicely, coriander, culantro, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage, Queen Anne's lace,
parsley, parsnip, sea holly, and the now extinct silphium.
Description Most Apiaceae are annual, biennial or perennial
herbs, though a minority are shrubs or trees.They are multicellular plants. Their leaves are
of variable size and alternately arranged, or alternate with the upper leaves becoming
nearly opposite. In some taxa, the texture is leathery, fleshy, or even rigid, but always
with stomata. They are petiolate or perfoliate and more or less sheathing, the blade usually
dissected and pinnatifid, but entire in some genera. Most commonly, crushing their leaves
emits a marked smell, aromatic to foetid, but absent in some members. The flowers are
nearly always aggregated in terminal umbels, simple or compound, often umbelliform cymes,
rarely in heads. The defining characteristic of this family
is the inflorescence: a simple or compound umbel. Flowers across the Apiaceae are fairly
uniform and are usually perfect and actinomorphic, but some are andromonoecious, polygamomonoecious,
or even dioecious, with a distinct calyx and corolla, but the calyx if often highly reduced,
to the point of being undetectable in many species, while the corolla can be white, yellow,
pink or purple. The flowers are nearly perfectly pentamerous, with 5 petals, sepals, and stamens.
The androecium contains of 5 stamens, but there is often variation in the functionality
of the stamens even within a single inflorescence. Some flowers are functionally staminate while
others are functionally pistillate. Pollination of one flower by the pollen of a different
flower of the same plant is common. The gynoecium consists of two carpels fused into a single,
bicarpellate pistil with an inferior ovary. When mature, the fused carpels separate into
two mericarps. Stylopodiums secrete nectar, attracting pollinators like flies, mosquitoes,
gnats, beetles, moths, and bees. The fruits are nonfleshy schizocarp of two
mericarps, each with a single seed; they separate at maturity and are dispersed by wind. Some
fruit segments (like those in Daucus spp. are covered in bristles and spread via external
transport. The seeds have an oily endosperm and generally contain large quantities of
fatty oils, with the fatty acid petroselinic acid occurring universally throughout the
family while rarely being found outside of the Apiaceae.
Systematics Apiaceae was first described by John Lindley
in 1836. The name is derived from the type genus Apium, which was originally used by
Pliny the Elder circa 50 AD for a celery-like plant. The alternative name for the family,
Umbelliferae, derives from the inflorescence being generally in the form of a compound
umbel. The family was one of the first to be recognized as a distinct group in Jacques
Daleschamps' 1586 Historia generalis plantarum. With Robert Morison’s 1672 Plantarum umbelilliferarum
distribution nova it became the first group of plants for which a systematic study was
published. The family is solidly placed within the Apiales
order in the APG III classification system. It is closely related to Araliaceae and the
boundaries between these families remain unclear. Traditionally groups within the family have
been delimited largely based on fruit morphology, and the results from this have not been congruent
with the more recent molecular phylogenetic analyses. The subfamilial and tribal classification
for the family is currently in a state of flux, with many of the groups being found
to be grossly paraphyletic or polyphyletic. Genera
According to the Angiosperm Phylogeny Website as of July 2014 there are 434 genera in the
family Apiaceae.
Ecology The black swallowtail butterfly, Papilio polyxenes,
utilizes the Apiaceae family for food and host plants during oviposition.
Uses Cultivation
Many members of this family are cultivated for various purposes. The plant structure
includes a tap root, which can be large enough to be useful in food, as with parsnips, carrots,
and Hamburg parsley. Many plants of this group are also adapted to conditions that encourage
heavy concentrations of essential oils, and as a result some are flavourful aromatic herbs.
Examples are parsley, coriander, culantro, and dill. The plentiful seeds of the umbels,
likewise, are sometimes used in cuisine, as with, coriander, fennel, cumin, and caraway.
Other notable cultivated Apiaceae include chervil, angelica, celery, arracacha, poison
hemlock, sea holly, asafoetida, galbanum, cicely, anise, lovage, and hacquetia.
Companion plants Almost every widely cultivated plant of this
group is a companion plant. In large part, this is because the tiny flowers forming the
umbels, are perfectly suited for ladybugs, parasitic wasps, and predatory flies, which
actually drink nectar when not reproducing. They then will prey upon insect pests on nearby
plants. Some of the plants are herbs that produce
enough scent to possibly dilute the odours of nearby plants, or the pheromones emitted
by insects that find those plants, which would otherwise attract more pests.
Other uses The poisonous members of the Apiaceae have
been used for a variety of purposes globally. The poisonous Oenanthe crocata has been used
to stupefy fish, Cicuta douglasii has been used as an aid in suicides, and arrow poisons
have been made from various other family species. Daucus carota has been used as coloring for
butter and its roots used as a coffee substitute. Dorema ammoniacum, Ferula galbaniflua, and
Ferula sumbul are sources of incense. The woody Azorella compacta Phil. has been
used in South America for fuel. Chemistry
Polyacetylenes can be found in Apiaceae vegetables like carrot, celery, fennel, parsley and parsnip
where they show cytotoxic activities. Many species contain coumarins or coumarin derivatives,
such as furanocoumarins. See also
Autumnalia References
Further reading Apiaceae. 2011. Utah State University Intermountain
Herbarium. 20 October 2011. http:herbarium.usu.eduapiaceae.htm Constance, L.. “History of the
classification of Umbelliferae.” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.], The biology and chemistry of
the Umbelliferae, 1–11. Academic Press, London.
Cronquist, A.. The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
French, D. H.. “Ethnobotany of the Umbelliferae.” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.], The biology and chemistry
of the Umbelliferae, 385–412. Academic Press, London.
Hegnauer, R. “Chemical Patterns and Relationships of Umbelliferae.” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.],
The biology and chemistry of the Umbelliferae, 267–277. Academic Press, London.
Heywood, V. H.. “Systematic survey of Old World Umbelliferae.” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.],
The biology and chemistry of the Umbelliferae, 31–41. Academic Press, London.
Judd, W. S. et al.. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates,
Inc. Plunkett, G. M. and S. R. Downie. “Major
lineages within Apiaceae subfamily Apioideae: a comparison of chloroplast restriction site
and DNA sequence data.” American Journal of Botany, 86, 1014–1026.
Plunkett, G. M., D. E. Soltis, and P. S. Soltis. “Higher Level Relationships of Apiales Based
on Phylogenetic Analysis of rbcL Sequences.” Botanical Society of America, 83, 499–515.
Plunkett, G. M., D. E. Soltis, and P. S. Soltis. “Evolutionary Patters in Apiaceae: Inferences
Based on matK Sequence Data.” American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 21, 477–495.
Nieto Feliner, Gonzalo; Jury, Stephen Leonard & Herrero Nieto, Alberto Flora iberica. Plantas
vasculares de la Península Ibérica e Islas Baleares. Vol. X. "Araliaceae-Umbelliferae"
Madrid: Real Jardín Botánico, CSIC. External links