Apiaceae |
| Annual, biennial or perennial. Stems usually hollow.
Leaves alternate, often heterophyllous, mostly compound
but sometimes simple. Inflorescences usually compound or
simple umbels, sometimes in heads or occasionally
proliferous; umbels usually subtended by bracts. Flowers
small, bisexual, unisexual or sterile, mostly
actinomorphic. Sepals 5, conspicous, inconspicous or
absent. Petals 5, ovary; anthers versatile. Ovary
2-locular; 1 ovule in each loculus; styles 2, at base
united and often swollen; fruit dry, of 2, 1-seeded
mericaps, contiguous along the inner surface
(commissure), usually with 5 longitudinal ribs on the
exposed outer (dorsal) surface; dark, oil-containing
tubes frequently found between the ribs on both the
dorsal and the commissural sides. © Christopher D.K. Cook |
