Plant taxonomists are the scientists who make it their business to classify the world\u2019s flora according to common characteristics.\u00a0 In the last thirty years or so, DNA has become a major player in this effort.\u00a0 Now plants that dirt gardeners, horticulturists and plant scientists only suspected of family relationships have been grouped or regrouped based on DNA evidence.\u00a0 It is exciting stuff for scientists, but sometimes rather frustrating for gardeners, who have used the same Latin names for plants or plant groups since just after the Great Flood, only to find that they have changed.\u00a0 The changes lead to complaining, a distinct kind of manure that has long fertilized many gardens.\u00a0 Eventually that manure breaks down and feeds gardens\u2014one way or another.<\/p>\n
I thought about this not long ago when I read a great article in England\u2019s Telegraph <\/em>newspaper, which has very good gardening coverage.\u00a0 The piece, by celebrated English horticulturist, Val Bourne, was \u201cTop 10 Best Cow Parsleys for Pollinators\u201d.\u00a0 Most Americans would find this title incomprehensible, as we don\u2019t generally use the term \u201ccow parsley\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cCow parsleys\u201d are field plants that are members of the Umbelliferae or carrot family, commonly found growing at the edges of farmers\u2019 fields, on country roadsides and in other untended, sunny spaces.\u00a0 Probably the best known umbellifer in this country is Queen Anne\u2019s lace, a naturalized American that is found everywhere.<\/p>\n The family name \u201cUmbelliferae\u201d comes from the Latin root, \u201cumbra\u201d, meaning \u201cshade\u201d.\u00a0 It also gave rise to words like \u201cumbrella\u201d, a device that shades us from the elements, not to mention the color \u201cumber\u201d a shady shade of brown.\u00a0 \u201cUmbelliferae\u201d is very descriptive, as the flowers of some species, including fennel; angelica and plain old carrots or Daucus carota ssp sativus, look like upside down umbrellas when they are viewed from the underside or have gone to seed.<\/p>\n Plant taxonomists clearly thought the umbrella-like name did not really characterize the plant family, so they renamed it \u201cApiaceae\u201d.\u00a0 This name, while less evocative, is also descriptive, derived from the Latin root \u201capis\u201d, meaning bee.\u00a0 The same root gave us the word \u201capiary\u201d, a fancy term for a beehive.\u00a0 The connection between the former umbellifers and bees is that plants in the family are full of nectar and extremely attractive to bees and other pollinators.<\/p>\n Which brings us back to cow parsley.\u00a0 If you are planning a garden for pollinators, members of the Apiaceae family are excellent choices.\u00a0 The most popular member in this country at least, is astrantia, sometimes called \u201cmasterwort\u201d.\u00a0 These feature long-lasting 1.5 inch flowerheads in varying shades of pink or greenish white.\u00a0 Each flower boasts a central umbel of tiny florets surrounded by a corona of daisy-like petals.\u00a0 The sun-loving plants rise 18 to 24 inches, with and 18 inch spread and flower stems that are nearly leafless, because all the palmate leaves are in a mound at the base.\u00a0 Masterwort prefers consistently moist soil and long, cool summers, but some hybrids do nicely in less congenial climates if they receive enough regular moisture.\u00a0 Happy plants spread by underground stolons and some varieties self-seed.\u00a0 One popular cultivar, \u2018Roma\u2019, features silvery pink flowers and a civilized habit that does not generally lead to unwanted offspring.\u00a0 The flowerheads also make excellent dried specimens.<\/p>\n Pollinator-friendly cow parsley looks more like a thistle than an umbrella.\u00a0 It is Eryngium or sea holly.\u00a0 The most popular varieties sport blue-ish compound flower heads that are rather conical in shape.\u00a0 Each is surrounded by a ring of green, spiky-looking bracts.\u00a0\u00a0 As with masterwort, sea holly features basal leaves that are palmately divided.\u00a0 Unlike masterwort, sea holly can grow up to three feet tall.\u00a0 Fortunately for small-space and container gardeners, compact varieties, like Eryngium planum \u2018Blue Hobbit\u2019, grow only 12 inches tall.<\/p>\n And finally, for a pollinator-friendly umbellifer that actually flaunts those umbrella-like characteristics, try Ammi majus, a more civilized, less invasive substitute for its look-alike cousin, Queen Anne\u2019s lace.\u00a0 It grows up to four feet tall, so it is most suitable for the middle of a large border or the rear of a small one.\u00a0 The foliage is typically fern like and the compound flowerheads are full of white or greenish-white blooms.\u00a0 If you can steal Ammi blooms away from the bees, they, like many cow parsleys, make great cut flowers.<\/p>\n And one last word about bees\u2026Some people are deathly afraid of these invaluable pollinators because of severe allergies or simple fear of being stung.\u00a0 I know passionate gardeners who carry their epinephrine injectors whenever they venture outside, allowing themselves both the joy of the hobby and the security of quick treatment in the unlikely event of a sting.\u00a0 In my experience, stings happen rarely unless you inadvertently disturb the insect.\u00a0 Over a long gardening career I have only been stung twice, both times by wasps and both times because I happened to put my hand near an unseen wasp that was going about its business.\u00a0 In the garden as elsewhere, it pays to pay attention.<\/p>\n Most of us do not use old-fashioned, umbrella-like parasols in the garden anymore, but we can still be genteel and invite a few umbellifers home for tea with the pollinators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Plant taxonomists are the scientists who make it their business to classify the world\u2019s flora according to common characteristics.\u00a0 In the last thirty years or so, DNA has become a major player in this effort.\u00a0 Now plants that dirt gardeners, horticulturists and plant scientists only suspected of family relationships have been grouped or regrouped based … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[1594,1596,1592,1595,1597,344,926,1593],"class_list":["post-2076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-apiaceae","tag-astrantia","tag-carrot-family","tag-cow-parsley","tag-masterwort","tag-pollinator-friendly-plants","tag-queen-annes-lace","tag-umbelliferae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2077,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2076\/revisions\/2077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}