UMBELLACEAE (CARROT FAMILY) 163 



UMBELLACEAE (CARROT FAMILY) 



Herbs. Leaves simple to decompound, alternate; stipules none 

 or minute. Flowers small, usually in umbels, rarely in heads or 

 headlike clusters, umbels simple or compound. Calyx limb 

 none or $-lobed; lobes inconspicuous. Petals 5, on the calyx. 

 Stamens 5, on the epigynous disk; anthers versatile. Ovary inferior, 

 2-celled; styles 2, persistent, often on a conic or depressed stylo- 

 podium. Fruit dry; carpels 2, 1 -seeded, with o or 5 chief ribs, 

 sometimes with 4 other smaller ribs, usually separating at maturity 

 along their plane of union (commissure), after separation borne 

 on a slender axis (carpophore); ribs often winged; oil tubes usually 

 present. 



This difficult family depends upon the oil tubes in the fruit for 

 the separation of the genera. To see these, cut a thin cross section 

 of a carpel with a sharp knife and examine with the low power of 

 the compound microscope. The oil tubes are hollows just outside 

 the seed cavity. The key is given mostly to the genera only. 

 It is doubtful whether beginners should go beyond the family. 

 (F. & R. pp. 271-290.) 



A. Leaves simple. 

 B. Leaves awl-shaped to lanceolate or oblanceolate or oblong. 



C. Leaves entire; flowers white or yellow, in umbels. GROUP 3, BB (p. 165) 

 CC. Leaves lobed to dentate; flowers white or blue, in dense somewhat spiny 



heads. GROUP 1, A (p. 163) 



BB. Leaves ovate to orbicular or kidney-shaped. 



D. Marsh or water plants ; leaves kidney-shaped, wider than long ; umbel simple. 



GROUP 3, B (p. 165) 



DD. Not marsh nor water plants; leaves ovate or longer, at least longer than 

 wide; umbel compound. GROUP 1, B (p. 163) 



AA. Leaves compound or very deeply dissected. 



E. Fruit conspicuously bristly or scaly. GROUP 1 (p. 163) 



EE. Fruit not bristly nor scaly. 



F. Fruit strongly flattened dorsally ; lateral ribs more or less prominently winged. 



GROUP 2 (p. 164) 



FF. Fruit not strongly flattened dorsally, usually somewhat flattened laterally. 

 G. Oil tube o-i in each interval. GROUP 3 (p. 165) 



GG. Oil tubes more than i in each interval. GROUP 4 (p. 166) 



GROUP 1 



A. Flowers in dense bracted prickly heads. (Said to be from Gk. erygein = to 

 belch; some were thought a remedy for flatulency.) Eryngium (ERYNGO) 



AA. Flowers in compound umbels, the umbellets often in headlike clusters, but 

 then not or hardly bracted. 



