| Carrot family | |
|---|---|
| Umbelliferae: Apium leaves and tiny inflorescences, Daucus habit, Foeniculum inflorescences, Eryngium inflorescences, Petroselinum root. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae) Lindl. |
| Type genus | |
| Apium L. |
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| Subfamilies | |
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The Apiaceae (or Umbelliferae), commonly known as carrot or parsley family, is a group of mostly aromatic plants with hollow stems. The family is large, with more than 3,700 species spread across 434 genera, it is the sixteenth largest family of flowering plants.[1] Included in this family are the well known plants: angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, centella asiatica, chervil, cicely, coriander/cilantro, cumin, dill, fennel, hemlock, lovage, Queen Anne's Lace, parsley, parsnip, sea holly, and the now extinct silphium.
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Most Apiaceae are annual, biennial or perennial herbs (frequently with the leaves aggregated toward the base), though a minority are shrubs or trees. 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 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 (hermaphroditic) and actinomorphic, but some are andromonoecious, polygamomonoecious, or even dioecious (as in Acronema), 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 (where a pistil may be present but has no ovules capable of being fertilized) while others are functionally pistillate (where stamens are present but their anthers do not produce viable pollen). Pollination one flower by the pollen of different flower of the same plant (geitonogamy) 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 non-fleshy 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[2][3] 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.
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/polyphyletic. [1]
The Apiaceae was first described by John Lindley in 1836.[4] 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.[5] 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.
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 (Pastinaca sativa), carrots (Daucus carota), and Hamburg parsley (Petroselinum crispum). 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 (Petroselinum crispum), cilantro (Coriandrum sativum), and dill (Anethum graveolens). The plentiful seeds of the umbers, likewise, are sometimes used in cuisine, as with coriander (Coriandrum sativum), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), cumin (Cuminum cyminum), and caraway (Carum carvi).
Other notable cultivated Apiaceae include chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium), angelica (Angelica spp.), celery (Apium graveolens), arracacha (Arracacia xanthorrhiza), poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), sea holly (Eryngium spp.), asafoetida (Ferula asafoetida), galbanum (Ferula gummosa), cicely (Myrrhis odorata), anise (Pimpinella anisum), lovage (Levisticum officinale), and hacquetia (Hacquetia epipactis).[2]
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.
Many plants in this family, such as wild carrot, have estrogenic properties and have been used as a folk medicine for birth control. Most notable for this use is the extinct giant fennel, silphium. Conicum maculatum has been used as a sedative and in treatments for arthritis and asthma in addition to its most famous use: as a “humane” method of killing criminals and philosophers. Daucus carota has been used as a diuretic, as a stimulant, to aid in uterine ailments, and one time as a treatment for jaundice. According to the Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides, “[Parsley] —especially Bastard or Wild Parsley—provokes venery and bodily lust and erection of the parts.” Fennel has been used to treat nausea; species of Ferula have been used to ease constipation and coughs; Cuminum cyminum has been used as a treatment for diarrhea; coriander for halitosis; Eryngium spp. to treat genitourinary problems; Centella asiatica to treat syphilis; and Ferula assa-foetida has been used as a carminative, antispasmodic, and stimulant.
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.
Apiaceae. 2011. Utah State University Intermountain Herbarium. 20 October 2011. http://herbarium.usu.edu/taxa/apiaceae.htm
Constance, L. (1971). “History of the classification of Umbelliferae (Apiaceae).” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.], The biology and chemistry of the Umbelliferae, 1-11. Academic Press, London.
Cronquist, A. (1968). The Evolution and Classification of Flowering Plants. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
French, D. H. (1971). “Ethnobotany of the Umbelliferae.” in Heywood, V. H. [ed.], The biology and chemistry of the Umbelliferae, 385-412. Academic Press, London.
Hegnauer, R. (1971) “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. (1971). “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. (1999). Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc.
Plunkett, G. M. and S. R. Downie (1999). “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 (1996). “Higher Level Relationships of Apiales (Apiaceae and Araliaceae) Based on Phylogenetic Analysis of rbcL Sequences.” Botanical Society of America, 83 (4), 499-515.
Plunkett, G. M., D. E. Soltis, and P. S. Soltis (1996). “Evolutionary Patters in Apiaceae: Inferences Based on matK Sequence Data.” American Society of Plant Taxonomists, 21 (4), 477-495.
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