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(Last Modified On 1/11/2013)
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(Last Modified On 1/11/2013)
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Family
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UMBELLIFERAE
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Contributor
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MILDRED E. MATHIAS AND LINCOLN CONSTANCE
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Description
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Herbs, or less commonly shrubs or small trees; leaves with or without stipules, usually with a sheathing base, alternate, opposite, or all radical, compound and usually much dissected, or sometimes simple; inflorescence of compound or simple umbels, less frequently of capitulae, often involucrate and, if compound, usually also involucellate; flowers perfect or unisexual, predominantly regular; calyx adnate to the ovary, its 5 lobes prominent and persistent in fruit, to obsolete; alternating with 5 free petals, these usually with an inflexed tip; stamens 5, alter- nating with the petals; ovary inferior, consisting of 2 uniovulate carpels; styles 2, often swollen at base to form a stylopodium; fruit a schizocarp, the 2 carpels united by their faces (commissure) and commonly separating at maturity, usually suspended from the apex of an axial projection (carpophore), terete or compressed or flattened either laterally or dorsally, normally 5-ribbed, the pericarp usually provided with evident vittae, or oil passages.
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Habit
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Herb shrub
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Habit
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tree
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Distribution
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A cosmopolitan family, but best represented in the temperate zones and only weakly developed in the tropics. Panama has fewer species than the countries either to the north or the south. Additional adventive species of the family are to be expected in Panama.
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Key
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a. Inflorescence of distinct simple or compound umbels with distinct rays (and usually pedicels), never capitate; fruits smooth or merely pubescent. b. Umbels compound (or some umbels simple); leaves estipulate, the petiole sheathing; fruit without a woody endocarp. c. Fruit flattened dorsally, the ribs winged. d. Flowers white; involucel present; small trees or shrubs with large leaflets ......-.. .......... ..... ... 1. MYRRHIDENDRON dd. Flowers yellow; involucel usually lacking; annual herbs with filiform leaf-divisions .-------------------------------------------------3. ANETHUM cc. Fruits compressed laterally, the ribs prominent to indistinct, but not winged. e. Inflorescence puberulent; our species a woody-based perennial with large leaflets, a conspicuous involucel, a parted carpophore, and large oblong to oblong-oval fruit .............................. 2. ARRACACIA ee. Inflorescence glabrous; our species an annual with filiform leaf- divisions, no involucel, a shortly cleft carpophore, and small, short-pedicellate, ovoid fruit .....-..-.. 4. APIUM bb. Umbels simple (or proliferous); leaves stipulate, the petiole not sheathing; fruit usually with a woody endocarp (or this obsolete). f. Stems erect; leaves opposite; petals with an inflexed apex; carpo- phore present; fruit flattened dorsally-.... - ............ ........ 7. SPANANTHE ff. Stems creeping; leaves alternate; petals plane; carpophore lacking; fruit flattened laterally ............................................ 8. HYDROCOTYLE aa. Inflorescence of heads, without rays or pedicels, never of umbels; fruits scaly, tuberculate, or bristly. g. Heads of numerous, sessile, perfect flowers; plants spinescent ............. 6. ERYNGIUM gg. Heads of few, sessile or pedicellate, perfect and staminate flowers intermixed; plants scarcely spinescent .............................. 5. SANICULA
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