Page "Apiaceae" Paragraph 1

Most Apiaceae are annual, biennial or perennial herbs ( frequently with the leaves aggregated toward the base ), though a minority are shrubs or trees.

Their leaves are of variable size and alternately arranged, or alternate with the upper leaves becoming nearly opposite.

In some taxa the texture is leathery, fleshy, or even rigid, but always with stomata.

They are petiolate or perfoliate and more or less sheathing, the blade usually dissected and pinnatifid, but entire in some genera.

Most commonly crushing leaves emits a marked smell, aromatic to foetid, but absent in some members.

The flowers are nearly always aggregated in terminal umbels, simple or compound, often umbelliform cymes, rarely in heads.