芹属 qin shu

She Menglan (佘孟兰 Sheh Meng-lan); Mark F. Watson

Herbs, annual or biennial, glabrous. Stem erect, ridged and shallowly fluted. Leaves petiolate, with membranous sheaths; leaf blade pinnate to ternate-pinnately compound. Umbels compound, loose to subcompact; peduncles usually short or abortive; bracts and bracteoles absent; rays few, spreading-ascending or spreading; umbellules few-flowered. Petals white or greenish-yellow, ovate to suborbicular, apex narrow, inflexed. Calyx teeth obsolete. Stylopodium low-conic to depressed; styles short, erect to reflexed. Fruit globose to ellipsoid, rounded at both ends, slightly compressed laterally, mericarp nearly rounded in cross section, commissural face constricted, glabrous; ribs 5, prominent, acute; vittae 1 in each furrow, 2 on commissure. Seed face plane. Carpophore stout, entire or bifid at the apex.

About 20 species: widespread in the temperate zones of both hemispheres; one species (introduced) in China.

Lower Taxon

• Apium graveolens Linnaeus