Here is my Fennel in bloom.  If you think it looks a lot like dill, you’d be correct.  They are in the same family of plants:  Umbelliferae.  This family includes: anise, caraway, carrots, celery, chervil, cilantro and coriander, cumin, dill, fennel, lovage, parsley, parsnips, Queen Anne’s lace, and wild carrot.

 

The flower, which becomes the seed head, is an umbel.  Just think of an umbrella and its spokes.  That’s what these plants all have in common:  their flower heads are shaped like little umbrellas, and their seeds grow at the ends of the spokes.  

 

This is Bronze Fennel, and the feathery leaves and seeds taste just like anise.  These plants are easily 5 feet tall, and loaded with seed heads.  It is an annual, but readily reseeds itself, so we have fennel growing in almost the same spots every year.  I brought some fennel seeds with me from Virginia in 2004, and it has been growing here ever since.

 

Another benefit of the Umbelliferae:  they are host plants for the Black Swallowtails. That’s really why we grow fennel, so we can host butterflies.

 

 

HAPPY  GARDENING!!!