Apium graveolens L.
wild celery
Erect terrestrial biennial, not rooting at nodes. Stems hollow, grooved, striate, up to 80-(100) cm high. Basal lvs 1-2-pinnate, petiolate; ultimate segments deltate or rhombic, lobed and crenate or dentate near apex, 2-4 cm long, ± sessile; stem lvs similar to basal but often apetiolate and becoming 1-pinnate or 3-foliolate with elliptic-obovate, entire or lobed segments. Umbels 2-5 cm diam., compound, ± sessile and lf-opposed, and so appearing bracteate; rays 4-15; bracts and bracteoles 0. Fls numerous, greenish white, c. 1 mm diam. Fr. broadly ovoid, dark brown, 1.5-2 mm long; ribs light brown, filiform.
N.: Three Kings Is, Kaitara and Kaitaia (Northland), Rangitoto Id, Coromandel, W. coast Wellington Province; S.: Marlborough Sounds, Christchurch; Ch., C.
Eurasia 1832
Waste places, often palustral, not common.
FL Nov-Mar.
Forms of A. graveolens are cultivated for the edible petioles (celery). The ribs of the fruit are slender by comparison with the thick corky wings of A. prostratum (Fig. 11). The first record of A. graveolens is most probably based on misidentification of the native A. prostratum.
