Inflorescence of Alexanders, mid-April 2023. This basic structure is a defining feature of the Apiaceae (formerly called the Umbelliferae). In this plant there are about 20 small umbels joined to make one large umbel (‘a compound umbel’, i.e. an umbel of umbels). Photo: John Grace.
This handsome plant is now flowering (April). It belongs to the Apiaceae, a Family that contains many culinary herbs including carrot, celery, parsley, fennel, coriander and parsnip. It is a Family of intense flavours and often-toxic compounds (among the most toxic is Hemlock, Conium maculatum). Most of its members are biennial, producing a rosette of leaves and a large storage root in the first year, then, in the second year, a vigorous tall stem with an umbrella-like inflorescence (‘umbel’).
The flowers of Alexanders are accessible to a broad range of pollinating insects including flies, bees, wasps, ants, attracted by the sweet-smelling volatile compounds (i.e. ‘promiscuous pollination’ whereby the visiting insect does not require to be a particular size or have a long tongue, the flower is open to all-comers). In one short study cited by Randall (2003), 137 visiting insect species were recorded, mostly flies. Photo: John Grace.
It is easily recognised. It sprouts in January and February and extends its flowering stem rapidly, reaching over a metre (up to 1.8 metres); and then it flowers in April and May, before almost all other members of its family. Its flowers are yellowish with petals that are curled inward, inconspicuous and missing in some cases. Sepals are small. the leaves are hairless and glossy. By the late summer the plants die back, presumably a feature connected with its southern-European origin – an adaptation to avoid hot and dry conditions. How does it ‘know’ when to sprout? We cannot answer that question, but this year I did notice how it sprouted around Christmas and then got knocked back by late frost, only to recover when conditions improved.
Vegetative features. Left: the base of the leaf stalk is expanded, forming a sheath. The slightly ridged stem is pigmented red on the sun-exposed side. Right: basic 2-pinnate structure of one of the larger leaves (length about 40 cm). Some leaves are less complex, not pinnate but ternate. The leaves are dark green and glabrous (i.e. no hairs). Photos: John Grace.
It could be mistaken for lovage Levisticum officinale but that one flowers later (June) and has more sharply toothed leaves. It could possibly be mistaken for the highly poisonous Hemlock Water Dropwort Oenanthe crocata but Oenanthe has white flowers and its leaves are more divided. Alexanders resembles Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa in having yellow flowers, but Pastinaca is rather hairy. One good diagnostic feature for Alexanders is that the mature fruits are black like peppercorns.
Left: Distribution in Britain and Ireland, from BSBI Maps, using data from the year 2000 to the present. Right: European distribution. Redrawn by Kaidor from the original in Randall (2003), now available through CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
It is native to most Mediterranean countries, including those in North Africa. It has an intriguing affinity for coastal areas, both here in Britain and in its native range, yet it is not reckoned to be salt tolerant (Hill et al. 2004). It might survive best in a maritime climate because the risk of frost is less, although Alexanders has been shown to recover from frost-damage at temperatures of -5 oC , despite injury (Randall 2003).
Tutin (1980) describes the habitat as “hedge-banks, cliffs and grassy roadsides…especially near the sea”. Randall (2003) says “Inland sites are frequently associated with old dwellings or ruins, especially monasteries or castles, where it is probably a relic of kitchen gardens”. The species is not normally found in woods or wetlands. It can withstand a certain amount of drought, but requires rather high pH values (usually more than pH=6) and a good nitrogen supply (see Hill et al. 2004).
Alexanders colonising a grassy bank immediately next to the Firth of Forth in North-east Edinburgh. Photo: Chris Jeffree.
The breeding system is complicated by the fact that both male and hermaphrodite flowers occur on the same plant. Usually the primary umbel has mainly hermaphrodite flowers whilst the secondary umbels (produced on branches lower down and coming later) are missing the female component. They produce abundant pollen which may be transferred to nearby plants. This phenomenon is called ‘andromonoecy’, and occurs in only about 2% of all plant species. In Alexanders, and in other members of the Apiaceae, the male flowers outnumber the hermaphrodites by 4 to 1 (Lovett-Doust & Harper 1980).
Flowers on the primary umbel, mostly hermaphrodite. Photo: Chris Jeffree.
Alexanders is thought to have been brought to Britain with the ancient Romans. What is the evidence? Traces of it were found as seeds in the mud deep at the bottom of a well in a Roman market town in Wales (now the village of Caerwent). Later, in medieval Britain, it was cultivated in monastic gardens, used as a medicinal herb and enjoyed as a vegetable. But when cultivated Celery appeared in the 17th Century it fell out of favour along with Smallage (Wild Celery Apium graveolens). Perhaps Alexanders, as a forgotten vegetable, is due for a comeback, as all parts of the plant are edible and delicious according to some people. Its many uses are listed on the website Plants for a Future and recipes are given for foragers www.eatweeds.co.uk. I especially like the idea of making Pickled Buds of Alexanders.
Illustration of Alexanders from Gerard’s Herbal. Note the especially well-developed storage root.
The first published botanical description of Alexanders was not until 1562, made by William Turner in his book A New Herball, Wherin are Conteyned the Names of Herbes. Early Herbals called it Hipposelinum. It didn’t get its current name until Linnaeus named and described it in 1753. Is it a native? No quite. The species has no fossils or pollen in British Quaternary records yet it grew here in pre-Columbian times and so it earns the title ‘archaeophyte’ (Preston et al. 2004), i.e. a plant that has been with us for a very long time but is not a native. Of course, one can never be sure about the status of archaeophytes. Any one of them could have been around before the Roman invasion but have left no evidence (such as well-defined pollen or fossil material with leaf imprints). However, the analysis of its thermal limits by Randall (2003) shows that the temperatures of its range in Britain are outside its broader European thermal envelope. Probably, as global warming proceeds, this plant will ‘feel more at home’.
Is it really a medicinal plant? Gerard described it in his Herball of 1597, and by 1653 Culpepper’s Complete Herbal says “it is usually sown in all gardens in Europe, and so well known, that it needs no farther description”. He goes on to list its uses as “it warms the stomach, opens a stoppage of the liver and spleen, it is good to move women’s courses, to expel the afterbirth, to break wind, to provoke urine.” However, it doesn’t seem to be stocked by High Street herbalists these days; but research continues, especially in China where natural products are widely used in preference to synthetic drugs. Li et al. (2015) report the content of a sesquiterpenoid compound called isofuranodiene which can protect against some types of liver-injury, and has anti-cancer properties.
Alexanders has had many names. Li et al. (2015) call it Wild Celery but that name should be reserved for Apium graveolens. According to Wikipedia, it has also been called Allsander, Alshinder, Alick, Skit, Skeet, Hellroot (a corruption of ‘heal root’), Megweed, Wild Parsley, Macedonian Parsley, Horse Celery, Stanmarch and Black Lovage. The generic name, Smyrnium is from the Greek word for myrrh (it is thought to smell like the tree resin with that name). The specific name olusatrum is from the Latin olus (for pot-herb) and atrum (for black, referring to the black fruit). The name, Alexanders, is a corruption of the Latin (olus ater sounds like Alexander); it has nothing to do with Alexander the Great.
References
Hill MO et al. (2004) PLANTATT – Attributes of British and Irish Plants: Status, Size, Life History, Geography and Habitats. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
Li W et al. (2016). Isofuranodiene, the main volatile constituent of wild celery (Smyrnium olusatrum L.), protects d-galactosamin/lipopolysacchride-induced liver injury in rats. Natural Product Research, 30, 1162-1165.
Lovett-Doust J & Harper JL (1980) The resource costs of gender and material support in an andromonoecious umbellifer, Smyrnium olusatrum L. New Phytologist, 85, 251-264.
Randall RE (2003) Biological Flora of the British Isles. No. 228: Smyrnium olusatrum L. Journal of Ecology 91, 325-340.
Tutin TG (1980) Umbellifers of the British Isles. BSBI Handbook No 2.
©John Grace
Botany in Scotland 
Here in coastal Suffolk it is a huge problem. Known as the “bully weed” it has taken over all the roadside verges causing the loss of many wild flowers, plus causing road safety problems. I spend all spring knapsack spraying to kill any on my farm. Flail mowers are the cause of its widespread population over the last 40 years
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