Visnaga Gaertner.

Herbs, annual or biennial, glabrous. Stem erect, terete, branching. Leaves petiolate, sheath narrow; blade ternate-pinnate or pinnatisect, membranous; ultimate segments filiform to lanceolate. Umbels compound, terminal and lateral; bracts numerous, entire or pinnately divided, reflexed in fruit; bracteoles many, entire. Calyx teeth obsolete or inconspicuous, minute. Petals white or yellowish, obcordate or deeply 2-lobed, lobes unequal, base tapering, clawed, apex inflexed, outer petals in outer flowers radiant. Stylopodium low-conic, base slightly undulate; styles slender, more than twice as long as stylopodium, reflexed. Fruit ovoid or ovoid-oblong, slightly compressed laterally, commissure constricted, mericarps pentagonal in cross section, glabrous; ribs 5, acute; vittae 1 in each furrow, 2 on commissure. Seed face plane. Carpophore entire or 2-cleft to base.

About six species: Mediterranean region; cultivated elsewhere; two species (introduced) in China.

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