Apium graveolens

General Description:

Apium graveolens an erect, annual or biennial herb, native to Europe and now naturalised and occurring wild in the foot-hills of north-western Himalayas and the outlying hills of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Roots succulent, well-developed, numerous; stems branching, angular or fistular, conspicuously jointed, up to 2.4m in height; leaves oblong to obovate, 7-18cm long, pinnate or trifoliolate, radical leaves with large deeply lobed segments, cauline tripartite; segments once or twice trifid, coarsely toothed; leaflets ovate to sub-orbicular, 3-lobed, 2.0-4.5cm long; flowers white or greenish white very small, in short-peduncled or sessile compound umbels; fruit a schizocarp consisting of two mericarps, suborbicular to ellipoid greyish brown to brown with pale ridges, 1.2mm in diam, aromatic and slightly biter.