茴香属 hui xiang shu

She Menglan (佘孟兰 Sheh Meng-lan); Mark F. Watson

Herbs, annual or perennial, all parts strongly aromatic (anise-scented). Stem erect, terete, gray-green or lurid-green, glabrous. Leaves petiolate, sheaths membranous-margined; blade pinnately decompound; ultimate segments linear. Umbels compound, terminal and lateral; bracts and bracteoles absent; rays numerous, upwards-spreading, unequal. Calyx teeth obsolete. Petals yellow, obovate, mid rib conspicuous, apex with narrowly inflexed lobule. Stylopodium conic; styles very short, reflexed. Fruit oblong, terete, glabrous; ribs 5, acute or round-obtuse; vittae 1 in each furrow, 2 on commissure. Seed face plane or slightly concave. Carpophore 2-cleft to base.

One species: Mediterranean region; cultivated and adventive worldwide, including in China.

Lower Taxon

• Foeniculum vulgare (Linnaeus) Miller