Broadleaf False Carrot

This is a common species in W. Pakistan from 1-3000 m.

Plants 20–40(–50) cm high. Leaf petiole to 5 cm; blade ovate-oblong, 4–10 × 2.5–5 cm; pinnae 1–2.5 × 0.5–1 cm. Peduncles stout, 6–9 cm; bracts (3–)4–5, lanceolate, 5–12 mm, margin white-scarious; rays 2–5, 3–4 cm; bracteoles ca. 5, ovate, 5–8 mm, margin white-scarious. Umbellules comprise 3–4 bisexual and 3–4 staminate flowers. Fruit ca. 10 × 5 mm. Fl. Jul, fr. Aug.

Plants 10-30 cm tall, hirsute. Leaves pinnate, hirsute, 5-10 cm long; segments oval, 1-5 cm long, pinnatifid to pinnatipartite; leaf bases sheathing. Involucre of 1-5 membranous white, linear to lanceolate bracts or lacking. Rays 2-5, hirsute. Involucel of 5 lanceolate to oval, white, pubescent bractlets. Calyx teeth evident. Petals white to rose coloured. Stylopodium conical; styles short. Fruit c. 1 cm long, spiny; spines barbed; 7 primary and secondary ridges with 1-3 rows of spines, the dorsal and the intermediate ridges larger than the secondary; the lateral ridges on the commissural surface with a row of spines or tubercles.

W Xinjiang [Afghanistan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia; NW Africa, C and SW Asia, C, S, and W Europe].

Distribution: Europe, North Africa, Iran, Central Asia, Afghanistan, Himalayas in India and W. Pakistan.

Ruderal weed of roadsides, waste places, and ditches; ca. 2000 m.