Native Plants

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Wednesday - September 28, 2011

From: Pine Grove, CA
Region: California
Topic: Plant Identification, Seeds and Seeding
Title: Dill-like plant in veggie garden in California
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

I have a plant that appeared in my veggie garden. Looks like dill in spring when green, but the leaves smell more like turpentine! Now, 4-5 foot tall, brown, it produces lots of small, oval - not crescent shaped-seeds that taste like caraway. Could this be edible, wild caraway?

ANSWER:

Here are photos and information about Carum carvi (wild caraway), a native of Asia, Europe and Africa. The seeds as seen on the USDA Plants Database certainly don't look like the ones you describe. However, your plant is likely another member of the Family Apiaceae (Carrot Family). There are many, both native and non-native, and they can be difficult to tell apart. Here are a few possibilities with similar leaves:

Anethum graveolens (Dill) non-native
Foeniculum vulgare (Fennel) non-native
Pimpinella anisum (Anise) non-native
Daucus pusillus (American wild carrot) native to California
Lomatium utriculatum (Common lomatium) native to California. Here are more photos.
Torilis arvensis (Hedge parsley) non-native
Cuminum cyminum (Cumin) non-native

There are a lot more possibilities.

Seeds (or rather the fruits) are one way to tell them apart. Here are links to photos of Apiaceae seeds from USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN).

If none of the plants or seeds above, look like your plant, your best bet to figure out what you have is to take photos and then visit our Plant Identification page to find links to plant identification forums that accept photos for identification. Photos of both the seeds and the plant would be most useful to someone trying to identify the plant.