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Pimpinella (Anise)

Pertinax
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Known to Ancient Greece and Rome, cultivated in tuscany in Imperial times.Mustaceae is I believe the Roman spice in question.

Now some of you will be asking , does this not look a little like Yarrow and Hemlock ? and , if I get it wrong I might cure a nosebleed but also possibly poison my guests? The flower heads on Anise are very fine and clumped , the stem tastes strongly of aniseed . Hemlock has 4 pinnate leaves and purple blotches on the stem ,and is much more likely to be near water. Yarrow smells peppery and has a fern like leaf.

Giant Hogweed is the monster mutant grandaddy of this family.

 

Once again I note a wider range of chemical constituents in those variants from Egypt-though the herb is now spread far and wide.It is mildly oestrogenic hence its folk use for stimulating breast feeding mothers.

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It looks so fern-like! Is there any relationship?

All the plants mentioned in the post attached to the image are types of carrot or rather of the carrot family.They tend to unfurl in a fern like manner during initial growth , but true ferns are a separate genus.

 

this link

http://plants.montara.com/ListPages/FamPages/Apia1.html

 

will be useful to those in N America, notice please the colouration of the Hemlock stems.

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