SIUM LATIFOLIUM

Family and Genus:- UMBELLIFERAE

Common Name:- Greater water-parsnip

Homotypic Synonyms:- None

Meaning:- Sium(L) A name used by Pliny for celery-like plants.

Latifolium (L) With broad leaves.

General description:- Glabrous perennial

Stems:-

1) Up to 150 cm. strongly sulcate, hollow.

Leaves:-

1) Submerged, (present only in spring) 2- to 3-pinnate, with linear lobes.

2) Aerial, simply pinnate;

a) lobes, up to 10 x 3 cm, 4-9(-16) pairs, ovate-lanceolate, unequal at the base,

serrate.

Flowers:-

1) Rays, usually 20-30.

2) Bracts, usually 2-6, often large and leaf-like;

a) bracteoles, lanceolate.

3) Sepals, c. 1 mm.

Fruit:-

1) 3-4 mm, ellipsoid but somewhat compressed; ridges thick.

Key features:-

1) Stem, strongly furrowed.

2) Sepals, conspicuous, lanceolate.

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Habitat:- Freshwater habitats such as swamps and lakeshores, ditches, reedbeds,

sometimes in the water, at low altitudes.

Distribution:- Based on field observations for E Crete, but this as well as scattered

records from the Greek mainland need confirmation.

Flowering time:- July-Aug.

Photos by:- Kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images.