Smyrnium olusatrum L.

Spice Fruit detail Leaf In the field 1 In the field 2 Umbel

Family: UMBELLIFERAE (APIACEAE)

Genus: Smyrnium

Catalan common name: Àbit de síquia. Aleixandri. Api de cavall. Cugul.

Spanish common name: Apio caballar. Perejil macedónico.

Province distribution: Alacant. Balearic Islands. Barcelona. Castelló. Girona. Tarragona. València.

Distribution in the islands: Mallorca. Menorca. Ibiza. Formentera.

General distribution (Phytogeography): Mediterranean

Uses and properties: Edible or foodstuffs.

IUCN Category: LCLeast concern

Flowering time: JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

Life-forms: Hemicryptophyte.

Habitats: Cultivated fields, path and road sides, disturbed zones. Non-saline wetlands (intermittent watercourses, streams, artesian wells, ditches). Humid soils, road sides, and disturbed zones.

Characteristics: Quite a robust plant, it can reach more than a metre in height, with large leaves divided into broadk, dentate leaflets that are bright green in colour, shiny on the obverse, with a very dilated petiole. It forms rigid umbels with greenish-yellow flowers. The fruits have very marked keels, become black when they ripen. It lives in torrents (dry river beds) and grasslands in slightly moist, shady places where it can coexist with other species of umbelliferae like Conium maculatum, this species can be distinguished because it is much taller, it forms white flowers and has more divided, tender leaves. It flowers in winter and at the beginning of spring, it is possibly the first Umbellifera to flower since in general this family is characterised by late flowering.