Socrates

Socrates, sentenced to death by taking hemlock

 

APIACEAE

Lindl.

pronounced: ay-pee-AY-see-eye

the celery family

 

This family is still often referred to as Umbelliferae.

Apium was the Latin name for several plants including celery and parsley. Most of the members of Apiaceae are herbs with hollow internodes. The leaves are nearly always alternate and pinnately or palmately compound, or more than once compound. The flowers are typically small, mostly bisexual, usually in a simple or compound umbel. The calyx is reduced to 5 tooth-like sepals around the summit of the ovary, or may be obsolete. The corolla consists of 5 distinct petals, or, rarely, is lacking. The fruit is a schizocarp. The family includes some highly toxic plants, such as hemlock. The cultivated plants of the family are almost all considered good companion plants, attracting omnivorous beneficial insects such as ladybirds, parasitic wasps and predatory flies, which then hunt insects on nearby crops.