---
title: "Basic Botany: The Carrot Family"
description: "Basic Botany: The Carrot Family"
---

[Mountain Rose Herbs Blog ](https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com)

# [Basic Botany: The Carrot Family](https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/botany-carrot-family)

 Written by [The Mountain Rose Herbs Team](https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/author/friends) | May 19, 2014

 

Let's take a closer look at the Carrot Family!

<https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/CarrotFam_blog-1.jpg?hsLang=en-us> Click to enlarge

## *Apiaceae* – The Carrot Family

(a-pee-AY-see-ee)

 

Be humble with the umbel! This family includes delicious food plants, wonderful medicines, as well as deadly poisons – and many look very much alike, especially in leaf and flower! Never use a wild Apiaceae plant without 100% positive identification.

If you are interested in learning more about plants in this family that grow near you, I highly recommend finding a good botanical key for your region and practicing without picking, or consult a local botanist whenever possible, until you become experienced at keying out plants. It's really fun to identify these herbs, but takes careful study.

 

##### Identification Tips

**Inflorescence - **Small flowers in *umbels* or *compound umbels*. Umbels are inflorescences with the *pedicels* (individual flower stalks) arising at a common point, like an umbrella. Compound umbels have secondary umbellets arising from the the primary rays.

**Leaves** - Often dissected to compound

**Flowers** - Generally, five petals and five stamens

**Fruits** - Mature fruit is a *schizocarp* that splits into two one-seeded *mericarps**. *Each species* *differs in texture and can be ribbed and/or winged, and have *stylopodiums* of varying sizes to obsolete or nearly so*.*

 

##### Food and Medicine

This family includes [celery](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), parsnip, [fennel](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-f), [cumin](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), [anise](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-a), [parsley](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-p), [caraway](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), [dill](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-d), [Queen Anne’s lace](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/aromatherapy/index/c-e#product-292), [angelica](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-a), [osha](http://mountainroseblog.com/save-conserve-osha-root-donation/), giant cow parsnip, water hemlock, and poison hemlock.

Medicinally, many of the plants in this family are prized for their warming [aromatic](http://mountainroseblog.com/understanding-herbal-actions/) properties, especially the seeds and roots. These aromatics are most often used to stimulate the digestive system ([fennel](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-f), [cumin](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), [caraway](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c)), reproductive system ([angelica](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-a)), and the respiratory tract ([osha](http://mountainroseblog.com/save-conserve-osha-root-donation/)).

As food, the leaves ([parsley](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-p), [dill](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-d), [cilantro](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c)), roots (parsnip, carrot, celeriac), seeds ([coriander](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), [anise](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-a), [fennel](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-f), [cumin](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c), [caraway](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs#products-c)), and other vegetative parts (celery and fennel) are used. Although, again, some plants in this family are very poisonous!

Topically, organic [carrot seed essential oil](https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/aromatherapy/index/c-e#product-292) from the seeds of the *Daucus carota, *also known as Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot, is used in facial serums and creams created for dry or mature skin.  

 

For more in the Basic Botany Series see:

[The Four Whorls of the Flower](http://mountainroseblog.com/basic-botany-whorls-flower/)

[Basic Botany: Rose Family](http://mountainroseblog.com/basic-botany-rose-family/)

 <https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/dill-1.jpg?hsLang=en-us>

 

[View full post](https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/botany-carrot-family)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "The Mountain Rose Herbs Team"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2017-03-21T18:37:15.258Z",
  "datePublished" : "2014-05-19T18:32:51Z",
  "headline" : "Basic Botany: The Carrot Family",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 743,
    "url" : "https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2310191/Imported_Blog_Media/CarrotFam_blog-1024x743-1.jpg",
    "width" : 1024
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/botany-carrot-family",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60.0,
      "url" : "https://blog.mountainroseherbs.com/hubfs/MRHLogo_Color_TransparentBackground-1.png",
      "width" : 161.9469
    },
    "name" : "Our Blog"
  }
}
```