''Berula'' is a cosmopolitan genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s 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 ...

, whose species are known as water parsnips,Calflora taxon report, University of California: ''Berula erecta''
/ref> as are some other plants in Apiaceae such as '' Sium latifolium'' and '' Sium suave''. It is easily confused with the highly toxic water hemlock (''Cicuta maculata''). ''Berula'' species are perennial, aquatic to semi-aquatic, herbaceous plants. The leaves are usually oppositely arranged. The flowerheads are arranged in

umbel UMBEL (Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer) is a logically organized knowledge graph of 34,000 concepts and entity types that can be used in information science for relating information from disparate sources to one another. It was retired ...

s of small white flowers. '' Berula erecta'' is a widespread

aquatic plant Aquatic plants, also referred to as hydrophytes, are vascular plants and Non-vascular plant, non-vascular plants that have adapted to live in aquatic ecosystem, aquatic environments (marine ecosystem, saltwater or freshwater ecosystem, freshwater ...

with fern-like leaves, found across Eurasia, Africa, North America, and elsewhere.

Taxonomy

The Plant List The Plant List was a list of botanical names of species of plants created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and the Missouri Botanical Garden and launched in 2010. It was intended to be a comprehensive record of all known names of plant specie ...

accepts five species: *'' Berula bracteata'' (Roxb.) Spalik & S.R.Downie *'' Berula burchellii'' (Hook.f.) Spalik & S.R.Downie *'' Berula erecta'' (Huds.) Coville *'' Berula imbricata'' (Schinz) Spalik & S.R.Downie *'' Berula repanda'' (Welw. ex Hiern) Spalik & S.R.Downie

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2899796 Freshwater plants Apioideae Apioideae genera Taxa named by Wilhelm Daniel Joseph Koch