Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains
Apiaceae - The Parsley Family
Glabrous, biennial to perennial herbs, fibrous or tuberous-rooted, some poisonous; stems hollow, sometimes thickened at the base. Leaves compound, 1-3X pinnate, alternate, petioled, the leaflets subentire to serrate or incised; petioles broadened at the base, with wings sheathing the stem. Inflorescence of few to many compound umbels, usually with an involucre of bracts subtending the primary branches (rays) of the umbels and an involucel of bractlets subtending the pedicels of the umbellets. Flowers tiny, perfect, regular, 5-merous; calyx minutely toothed or obsolete; petals white, separate, inflexed at the tip; stamens 5; styles 2, swollen at the base to form a stylopodium, ovary inferior, 2-celled, maturing into a flattened, corky-ribbed schizocarp which ultimately splits along a central commissure into 2, 1-seeded mericarps, the mericarps separating from the base upward to reveal a slender carpophore between them, both mericarps attached to the carpophore at their tips, the carpophore eventually splitting lengthwise as the mericarps separate.
| Lead | Characteristic | Go To |
| 1 | Leaves once-pinnate; roots fibrous; primary veins of the leaflets directed toward the teeth of the margin. | Lead 2 |
| 1 | Leaves 2-3X pinnate; roots usually partly tuberous; primary veins of the leaflets directed toward the sinuses between the teeth of the margin. | Genus Cicuta |
| 2 | Leaflets of upper leaves irregularly incised; fruits with obscure ribs. | Genus Berula |
| 2 | Leaflets of upper leaves regularly serrate; fruits with conspicuous ribs. | Genus Sium |
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