Spreading Chervil (Chaerophyllum procumbens)
- Family: Carrot (Apiaceae)
- Flowering: April-June.
- Field Marks: This species is distinguished by its small umbels of white flowers and its fruits that are broadest near the middle.
- Habitat: Along streams, roadside ditches, alluvial fields.
- Habit: Annual herbs with fibrous roots.
- Stems: Spreading to erect, much branched, smooth or somewhat hairy.
- Leaves: Alternate, twice-pinnate, smooth or somewhat hairy, the leaflets oblong to ovate.
- Flowers: White, borne in small, few-flowered umbels, on very slender, smooth stalks, subtended by small bracts.
- Sepals: Minute or seemingly absent.
- Petals: 5, free, white, up to 1/12 inch long.
- Stamens: 5.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior, elongated, usually smooth.
- Fruits: Narrowly oblong to elliptic, somewhat flattened, up to 1/2 inch long, about 1/10 inch wide, broadest near the middle, with strong vertical ribs.
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