Sium

Sugarroot ( Sium sisarum )

The plant genus Wish ( Sium ) belongs to the carrot family ( Apiaceae ). The approximately ten to 15 species have their distribution areas in Africa, Eurasia and North America.

Description

Sium species grow as perennial herbaceous plant. There are marsh or aquatic plants. In some species bundles are formed with thickened roots. The plants are hairless. At the branched stems roots can be formed at the lower nodes present. The stalked leaves are pinnate. The stalkless leaflets often have a serrated edge.

The flowers are borne in terminal or pendent inflorescences; there are double umbels with simple or divided bracts and lanceolate Hüllchen, which are usually bent back. The small flowers are hermaphroditic, radial symmetry and fünfzählig. The five, often unequal, sepals are flashy or tiny, sometimes they fall off early. The five petals are white. The outer flowers of a compound umbel often have extended petals. The smooth fruits have a two split up to the base Karpophor.

Species

There are about ten to 15 Sium species ( selection):

• Sium frigidum Handel-Mazzetti
• Broadleaf Wish, Wish Big, Merle or water celery ( Sium latifolium L.)
• Sium latijugum C.B.Clarke
• Sium medium Fischer & C.A.Meyer
• Sium sisaroideum DC.
• Sugarroot ( Sium sisarum L.)
• Sium suave Walter

No longer the genus Sium include:

• Narrow- Wish ( Sium erectum Huds. , Sium angustifolium L., Sium thunbergii DC. ) ⇒ Ordinary Berle Berula erecta ( Huds. ) Coville
• Sium douglasii DC. Cicuta douglasii ⇒ ( DC.) J.M.Coult. & Rose

Pictures

Compound umbel of Sium suave var nipponicum

Swell

• Pu Fading & Mark F. Watson: Sium in the Flora of China, Volume 14, p 115: Online.
• E. Nasir: Umbelliferae in the Flora of Pakistan, Volume 20: Sium - Online.
• ML Gonçalves: Umbelliferae in the flora Zambesiaca, Volume 4, 1978: Sium - Online.