The World Flora Online

Herbs, annual or perennial, rarely woody at base. Caulescent or acaulescent, stem hollow or solid. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or basal; petiole usually sheathing at base; stipules absent (except in subfam. Hydrocotyloideae); leaf blade compound or sometimes simple, usually much incised or divided, pinnatifid to pinnatisect, or ternate-pinnately decompound. Flowers epigynous, small, bisexual or staminate (unisexual male), regular, in simple or compound umbels; umbellules few to many-flowered; rays often subtended by bracts forming a involucre; umbellules (sometimes called umbellets) usually subtended by bracteoles forming an involucel. Pedicels long, short or obsolete (then forming a capitate umbellule). Calyx tube wholly adnate to the ovary; calyx teeth (sometimes called sepals) small or obsolete, forming a ring around the top of the ovary. Ovary inferior, 2-celled, with one anatropous ovule in each locule. Styles 2, usually swollen at the base forming a stylopodium which often secretes nectar. Fruit dry, of two mericarps united by their faces (commissure), and usually attached to a central axis (carpophore), from which the mericarps separate at maturity; mericarps are variously flattened dorsally, laterally or terete; each mericarp has 5 primary ribs, one down the back (dorsal rib), two on the edges near the commissure (lateral ribs), and two between the dorsal and lateral ribs (intermediate ribs), occasionally with four secondary ribs alternating with the primary, the ribs filiform to broadly winged, thin or corky; vittae (oil-tubes) usually present in the furrow (intervals between the ribs sometimes called the valleculae) and on the commissure face, rarely also in the pericarp, sometimes obscure. Each mericarp 1-seeded, splitting apart at maturity. Seed face (commissural albumen) plane, concave to sulcate.

Calyx adnate to the ovary, normally with 5 minute teeth Flowers usually hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, in simple or compound umbels, rarely capitate Stamens 5, free, alternate with the petals; filaments inflexed in bud, anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise Petals 5, free, valvate or slightly imbricate, epigynous Fruit dry, dividing when ripe into 2 mericarps, supported by a central carpophore; carpels usually ribbed and often with resin canals (vittae) in their walls; mericarps sometimes hairy and sometimes provided with hooks or spines Styles 2, ovary inferior, 2-celled, ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous Seeds with copious endosperm and minute embryo Herbs with furrowed stems and broad soft pith, rarely shrubs or small trees Leaves alternate, usually compound and much divided, sometimes simple, rarely peltate Flowers usually hermaphrodite, rarely unisexual, in simple or compound umbels, rarely capitate Stamens 5, free, alternate with the petals; filaments inflexed in bud, anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise Petals 5, free, valvate or slightly imbricate, epigynous Fruit dry, dividing when ripe into 2 mericarps, supported by a central carpophore; carpels usually ribbed and often with resin canals (vittae) in their walls; mericarps sometimes hairy and sometimes provided with hooks or spines Styles 2, ovary inferior, 2-celled, ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous Seeds with copious endosperm and minute embryo Herbs with furrowed stems and broad soft pith, rarely shrubs or small trees Leaves alternate, usually compound and much divided, sometimes simple, rarely peltate

Fls individually small, epigynous, 5-merous, all or many of them perfect and regular, typically borne in compound umbels, less often in heads or simple umbels, or the umbels irregular and proliferating; cal commonly of small teeth around the top of the ovary, or obsolete; pet distinct, valvate, typically in flexed at the tip; stamens alternate with the pet; carpels 2, united to form a compound, inferior, bilocular ovary with distinct (often short) styles, these often swollen at the base to form a stylopodium that is confluent with the epigynous nectary-disk; ovules solitary in each locule, apical-axile, pendulous, epitropous; fr a dry schizocarp, the 2 mericarps typically separating acropetally to reveal a slender (often bifid) ± persistent carpophore, or the carpophore less often wanting; embryo dicotyledonous; endosperm copious and oily; aromatic herbs with mostly alternate, often very large, simple to much more often compound or dissected leaves, the petiole commonly with a broad, sheathing base, exstipulate or with mere stipular flanges. (Umbelliferae, nom. altern.) 300/3000, cosmop., especially N. Temp.The primary branches of the umbel are called rays; the members of the involucre (abbreviated invol) are bracts, and the members of the involucel (subtending an umbellet) are bractlets. The part of the mericarp that adjoins the other mericarp is the commissure; the ribs next to the commissure are the lateral ribs, and the others are dorsal. Laterally compressed frs have a narrow commissure, dorsally compressed frs a broad one. Generic delimitation is difficult, and the key here presented is strictly artificial.