The Carrot Family
What are they?
The Carrot Family is a well-known family of mostly herbaceous perennials. Flowers are usually either white or yellowish and most often carried in flat heads, reach flower cluster radiating out on a thin stem like the spokes of a wheel. This structure is known as an umbel. This family is peculiar in having many species which are familiar and popular vegetables while also having members that are highly poisonous - an important family to be able to identify correctly!
Where are they found?
Most species are found in wetlands or in disturbed habitats such as fields, roadsides and waste places.
Identification
One or two species are unusual and readily identified, but most conform to a similar pattern of feathery leaves and flowers in flat-topped umbels. For these species, it may be necessary to look carefully at the whole structure of the flower head. At the point where the first 'spokes' radiate out from the main stem, look for the presence or absence of small, often leaf-like growths called bracts. Further up each 'spoke' where another, smaller set of 'spokes' radiates out (these carrying the flowers), look again for the presence or absence of smaller growths, this time called bracteoles. For some species, confirming identification by the outward appearance of the ripe fruit or seed pod can also often be important.
Rattlesnake-master Eryngium aquaticum
Found in many types of wet soils in swamps, marshes and the brackish edges of saltmarsh. Flowers July to September. Once apparently forming great swathes of pale blue when in flower in Cape May County, this now seems to be an extremely rare plant here, reduced to just a few, unprotected individuals. Leaves are strap-like with prickly margins.
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Canadian Sanicle Sanicula canadensis
(Short-styled Snake-root) A widespread and common, low-growing species of shady woods, where it often grows in areas with little other vegetation. Flowers May to June.
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Wild Carrot Daucus carota
(Queen Anne's Lace) A widespread and often abundant introduction from Europe, found in any grassy or waste area, roadsides, fields and similar habitats. Flowers June to October. This is the wild ancestor of the familiar garden carrot. It is often wrongly called Queen Anne's Lace in North America, a name that correctly belongs as an alternative name for Cow Parsely Anthriscus sylvestris. Easily identified by its long, well-branched bracts, which remain on the base of the seed head as it develops.
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Bur Chervil Anthriscus caucalis
Introduced from Europe. Widely distributed across North America, though there are currently no published records for New Jersey. Found at the Magnasite Plant on Sunset Boulevard in 2011. A weed of waste places. Flowers May to July. Leaves deeply cut and fern-like; seed heads with strongly-hooked bristles which latch into animal fur as a mode of dispersal.
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Spreading Chervil Chaerophyllum procumbens
A native North American species which is generally found in deeper, moist, floodplain soils. Such soils are not typically found in Cape May County and its presence at Reed's Beach Road may be due to introduction from elsewhere. Flowers May. Leaves deeply cut and fern-like; seed heads smooth, with no hooks or hairs.
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Stiff Cowbane Oxypolis rigidior
Low wet areas in shaded woodland and along the edges of more or less permanent water courses. Flowers August to September. The whole plant is hairless and rather rigid, including the leaves which have well marked veins on the underside. Bracts and bracteoles largely absent.
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Golden Zizia Zizia aurea
A native species once known from wet meadows and woods in the lower half of the county, but there have been no recent records. Flowers May to June.
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Fennel Foeniculum vulgare
Introduced from Europe. Grown as a garden herb and occasionally found where self-seeded in marginal habitats. Perhaps increasing due to its growing popularity as a butterfly foodplant; the plant is readily used as a larval foodplant by Black Swallowtails. Flowers June to August. The whole plant smells strongly of anise.
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Hemlock Conium maculatum
(Poison Hemlock) Introduced from Europe. An uncommon species, found scattered here and there either as a weed of waste places or on the margins of wetlands. Flowers June. Stems are strongly blotched purplish-red, while whole plant smells strongly like male mice.
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Ground-elder Aegopodium podagraria
Introduced from Europe. A surprisingly uncommon species, since this plant can be highly invasive. Currently known from Cape May Point but may be found anywhere as a garden weed. Flowers June. A low plant, only growing to arouns one foot in height, but spreading to form thick mats of leaves. An ornamental form with variegated leaves is occasionally planted.
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Hemlock Water-parsnip Sium suave
A common plant of all types of wetlands, most often found along the edges of more permanent water bodies. Flowers July to September. Bracts and bracteoles all relatively broad and leaf-like, leaves pinnate, the leaflets strongly serrated along the margins.
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Mock Bishopweed Ptilimnium capillaceum
(Herbwilliam) A coastal species that may be found in more or less permanently wet ground along the edges of brackish and freshwater marshes . Flowers September to November. Individual plants are often small, but grow in dense colonies, forming a white foamy mass of tiny flowers. Leaves reduced to very narrow, feathery leaflets.
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Spotted Water Hemlock Cicuta maculata
(Spotted Cowbane) A common, tall-growing umbellifer of streamsides, ditches and the edges of wet, swampy areas. Flowers June to August. Lower stems and leaf stalks often spotted with purple.
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