Today's foragers diary post is all about 'umbelifers', the word umbelifer or umbelliferae is a little misleading as it sounds like it should be part of these plants scientific names but actually they are normally grouped under the genus Apiaciea; that is the celery and carrot family.
What the word umbelifer refers to is the umbrela shaped sprays of flowers which are indicative of this genus; I will also show a few species which might look like part of this group but actually aren't.
There is a good reason to be familiar with the umbelifers; some are delicious while others are deadly.
Lets start with the look alikes;
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Elder (Sambucus nigra) not one of the umbelifers but is does have that distinctive umbrella shaped spray of white flowers. |
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Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria) another one with those distinctive umbrells but not of the same family. |
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The reason for the 'umbellifer' name; these are the flowers of common hogweed. See the post from a few weeks ago on the differences between common and giant hogweed. |
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Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum) another edible umbellifer, it's leaves are present all year and I have used them in some really delicious recipes, it has featured in a post in the foragers diary previously. |
This of course is not an exhaustive list of this group of plants but should give you a fairly good introduction, Be careful with them but I would highly recommend becoming familiar with them as there are some really delicious options for a lot of them and from a survival perspective they are also very common, and commonly available plants are the ones you need in a situation where you are desperate for food, it's all well and good knowing that ladies smock is edible but when it is tiny, and fairely scarce is it really going to help? On the other hand hogweed grows everywhere.
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