Ridolfia segetum’

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Ridolfia segetum, also known as a fennel or “false fennel”, is the only plant species of the genus Ridolfia within the family of Doldenflower (Apiaceae). It is widespread in the Mediterranean.

Description
Ridolfia segetum grows as an annual herbaceous plant and reaches growth heights of up to 100 centimeters. Their pile root emits a fennel-like smell. Their upright, branched, pale green stem is hairless. The hairy, green foliage leaf is feathered several times with very fine, thread-like leaf sections.

The flowers stand together in a dolde. The dolde is 10- to 60-ray. An envelope is not formed. The flowers are yellow.

The brownish or pale-yellow akane is elongated to egg-shaped at a length of 1.5 to 2.5 millimetres. The yellow seeds are egg-shaped at a length of 2 to 4 millimetres. The two green, bare cotyledons have a length of 28 millimetres.

The number of chromosomes is 2n = 22 +0-2B.

Occurrence
Ridolfia segetum is found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Spain, the Balearic Islands, Portugal, France, Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Croatia, Greece, Crete, the Aegean Sea, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Sinai.
It grows along roadsides and as arable weed.

Ingredients
The seeds and leaves contain an essential oil with a high proportion of monoterpenic hydrocarbons, especially α-Phellandrene, which smells strongly fennel-like.

Taxonomy and name declaration
This species was first published in 1771 under the name Anethum segetum by Carl von Linné in Mantissa Plantarum, p. In 1841 Giuseppe Giacinto Moris in Enumeratio seminum Horti Regii Botanici Taurinensis, 43 set up the genus Ridolfia with the type Ridolfia segetum; He also published it in Flora Sardoa ... Taurini, 2, 1842, p. The genus name honors Cosimo (Pietro Gaetano Gregorio Melchiorre) Ridolfi (1794–1865), an Italian nobleman, agronomist and politician.

Use
In Sicily, Ridolfia segetum is used raw in lettuce.

Sources
Rheinmedia: fennel, weed determination.
Hyppa: Short story.

Individual evidence

Idolidae
Apiaceae