''Oenanthe'', known as water dropworts, oenanthes, water parsleys, and water celeries, are a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

of plants in the family

Apiaceae Apiaceae () or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus ''Apium,'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot, or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering p ...

. Most of the

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

grow in damp ground, such as in marshes or in water. Several of the species are extremely poisonous, the active poison being oenanthotoxin. The most notable of these is ''O. crocata'', which lives in damp, marshy ground, and resembles

celery Celery (''Apium graveolens'' Dulce Group or ''Apium graveolens'' var. ''dulce'') is a cultivated plant belonging to the species ''Apium graveolens'' in the family Apiaceae that has been used as a vegetable since ancient times. The original wild ...

with roots like a bunch of large white

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild ...

s. The leaves may be eaten safely by

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

, but the stems, and especially the carbohydrate-rich roots are much more poisonous. Animals familiar with eating the leaves may eat the roots when these are exposed during ditch clearance: one root is sufficient to kill a cow, and human fatalities are also known. It has been referred to as the most poisonous of all British plants, and is considered particularly dangerous because of its similarity to several edible plants. The species '' O. javanica'', commonly known as Chinese celery or Japanese parsley (''seri''; not to be confused with ''mitsuba'' or Japanese wild celery, ''Cryptotaenia japonica'') is edible and grown in several countries of eastern

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

, as well as in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, where the spring growth is relished as a vegetable.

Taxonomy and naming

The name "Oenanthe" was used in ancient times to refer to several different plants, one of which was described by

Pedanius Dioscorides Pedanius Dioscorides (, ; 40–90 AD), "the father of pharmacognosy", was a Greek physician, pharmacologist, botanist, and author of (in the original , , both meaning "On Medical Material") , a 5-volume Greek encyclopedic pharmacopeia on he ...

as having "white flowers... and many round heads." This was isnterpreted by medieval herbalists as dropwort or an umbellifer. By the 18th century it was being widely used for water-dropworts. For example, in Hortus Cliffortianus hemlock water-dropwort was called ''Oenanthe foliis omnibus multifidis obtusis subaequalidus''.

Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

formalised it as a generic name in ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genus, genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature ...

'' in 1753. Although the word is ultimately derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

οίνος, "wine" and άνθος, "flower", this has no meaning when applied to the water-dropworts other than as an arbitrary name for the genus. Subsequent speculation that it refers to the smell of the flowers or intoxication caused by these plants are probably mistaken. The word "dropwort" refers to the tubers produced amongst the roots of certain species in the genus.

Species

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

accepts 33 species of ''Oenanthe'':

Identification

The following simplified key can be used to distinguish the six British water-dropworts, by eliminating them one by one. To use the key, a few terms are needed: bracts are small, leaf-like appendages at the bottom of the primary umbels; rays are the branches of the primary umbels; petioles are leaf stalks. Refer to the notes on the species pages to confirm the identification. 1. Plants with bracts and ovate leaflets... O. crocata 2. Plants with bracts and narrow leaflets, rays thickening in fruit... O. pimpinelloides 3. Plants with bracts and narrow leaflets, rays not thickening in fruit... O. lachenalii 4. No bracts, upper leaves with ovate segments... O. aquatica 5. No bracts, upper leaves with narrow segments, petiole hollow... O. fistulosa 6. No bracts, upper leaves with narrow segments, petiole solid, rays thickening in fruit... O. silaifolia 7. No bracts, upper leaves with narrow segments, petiole solid, rays not thickening in fruit... O. lachenalii

Sardonic grin

Scientists at the

University of Eastern Piedmont The University of Eastern Piedmont "Amedeo Avogadro" (; shortened to UNIPMN or UPO) is a university located in Alessandria, Novara and Vercelli, in the region of Piedmont, Italy. It was founded in 1998 and is organized in seven faculties, which ...

wrote that they had identified hemlock water dropwort (''Oenanthe crocata'') as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. This plant is a possible candidate for the "sardonic herb", which was a

neurotoxic Neurotoxicity is a form of toxicity in which a biological, chemical, or physical agent produces an adverse effect on the structure or function of the central and/or peripheral nervous system. It occurs when exposure to a substance – specifical ...

plant referred to in ancient histories. It was purportedly used for the ritual killing of elderly people and criminals in Nuragic

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; ; ) is the Mediterranean islands#By area, second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, and one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. It is located west of the Italian Peninsula, north of Tunisia an ...

, in which they were intoxicated with the herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.

Fossil record

'' Oenanthe aquatica''

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

fruit halves have been recorded from Upper

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

and the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

.The

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and its correlation with other

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

by Felix Yu. VELICHKEVICH and Ewa ZASTAWNIAK - Acta Palaeobotanica 43(2): 137–259, 2003

Gallery

File:Oenanthe pimpinelloides2.jpg, Corky-fruited water dropwort (''Oenanthe pimpinelloides'') File:Oenanthe crocata.JPG, Hemlock water dropwort (''

Oenanthe crocata ''Oenanthe crocata'', hemlock water-dropwort (sometimes known as dead man's fingers) is a flowering plant in the Apiaceae, carrot family, native to Europe, North Africa and western Asia. It grows in damp grassland and wet woodland, often along ri ...

'') in spring

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q2737226 Apioideae Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Apioideae genera