Some Apeaceae questions

[Suffolkrafter]

I have a couple of questions for the botanists and plant geeks among you. There are one or two Apeaceae that I'm still a bit sketchy about, more in terms of edibility rather than ID, and I'd like to fill in some gaps.

In particular wild fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) which grows near me, I have down as 'contradictory edibility' in my notes. Some websites list it as too toxic to be edible, some claim all parts are edible. I think some websites claim to be foraging wild fennel but from their descriptions, I believe they've maybe foraged escaped, cultivated 'garden' fennels which are different varieties of the same species. It's possible also that wild fennel in various countries may differ from that in the UK?

In my notes I have wild parsnip (Pastinaca sativa) as having an edible taproot. I have greater and lesser water parsnips (Sium latifolium and Berula erecta) as too toxic to be edible.

If any of you guys think differently or have extra details I'd be glad to hear it.

 

[Broch]

As I am probably using exactly the same resources as you, I can only give my opinion really

First, all Fennel is really as escapee in this country anyway as far as I can tell - there are a number of varieties as you say. It was brought in and cultivated by the Romans at first.

I have no issues with eating fennel TBH, I only use it as a herb so I'm not consuming kgs of the stuff.

Wild parsnip I have listed as identified by its parsnip smell with edible root and edible young foliage once cooked.

I believe Water Parsnip (Sium sisarum) is edible but the other 'water parsnips' are toxic (but foul tasting anyway). I've not tried any of them.

I confess, I apply near paranoid caution when dealing with the umbellifers, and only use a very small number of the Apiaceae family

 

[Suffolkrafter]

Thanks Broch, that's interesting.

paranoid caution

Yes same here. I've been studying them in some detail for a couple of years now, getting to know the ones in my patch over their cycles - plenty of hogweed and alexanders in particular which is nice. I will be content to limit myself to those for foraging. But I like to learn the more obscure ones for completeness. Although oddly Sium sisarum is not on my list so I'm glad you mentioned it. I somehow missed it.