Nature on our doorsteps: The annual parade of Umbellifer plants

Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into the natural heritage around us and the beautiful biodiversity of the plants and creatures.

An important family of plants in nature is the very large group that is often referred to as the Umbellifers.

Different members of this family bloom at different times of the year, and at the moment the bushy white-flowering Cow Parsley is in flower all along hedgerows and roadsides.

The Umbellifer’s  tiny white flowers are held close together on thin stems that emerge from a point at the end of one of the plant’s sturdy growing stems.

When viewed from the side, the flat or gently curving flowerheads with their little flower stems look like an umbrella, with the little stems looking like the spokes of the umbrella.

This shape gives this group their Umbellifer name.

Alexanders is usually the first Umbellifer to appear in early February.

Their glossy green leaves and yellow-green flowerheads line hedgerows and roadsides.

Cow Parsley takes over in April with its tall, light, airy stems and delicate lacey white flowers.

Cow Parsley can sometimes dominate the sides of country roads.

The robust Common Hogweed appears around May.

Cow Parsley lines hedgerows and roadsides in April and May

Its flowers are a more subdued off-white or cream colour.

Hogweed likes deep and damp fertile soil and while it also grows scattered along roadsides and riverbanks, it can sometimes be seen in high numbers spreading across abandoned fields.

From mid-summer, Pignut and the Wild Carrot begin to flower in dry meadows and lime-rich soils.

These are lighter and shorter in height than their earlier flowering relatives.

As this large family is the origin of many of the plants we cook with today, the Umbellifers are economically important to us.

They include vegetables like celery, parsnips, and carrots, while herbs include parsley, dill, fennel, lovage, coriander, cumin, caraway, watercress, and angelica.

The Umbellifers also include poisonous plants like Hemlock, while the Giant Hogweed can cause severe skin irritation.

It is probably better therefore to avoid foraging from this group of plants and to leave them instead to the wide range of insects that feed on their pollen, nectar, leaves, and stems.

Birds also rely on their seeds and insect larvae overwinter in their hollow stems.