Ammi majus L.

Slender but wiry glabrous annual herb, 0.25–1.2(–1.8) m., with a slender taproot.. Stem terete or feebly angled, striate, rather sparingly branched.. Lower leaves (1–)2-pinnate, with up to 3 pairs of stalked pinnae, the pinnae opposite but pinnules frequently alternate; segments oblanceolate to elliptic or broadly obovate, ± 1–7 × 0.4–8 cm., sharply toothed, the teeth with a long, white, fine, whitish mucro, subaristate; petioles ± 4.5–16 cm.; sheaths triangular to oblong, membranous-margined, finely striate, 0.8–1.5 cm.; upper leaves gradually more narrowly divided, more shortly petiolate, the uppermost sessile on the sheaths with linear and remotely toothed segments; more rarely forms occur with all the leaves regularly bipinnate with narrow segments.. Umbels large and showy, on divergent peduncles ± 6–18 cm. long; rays (7–)15–50 or more, slender, ± 2.5–6.5 cm. long; involucre of several bracts, these usually pinnately divided into filiform pale-aristate segments, sometimes simple in dwarfed forms growing in unfavourable conditions; partial umbels ± 18–30-flowered, the pedicels very unequal, ± 1–9 mm.; involucel of ± 8–10 narrow, membranous-margined, subulate bracteoles with a pale terminal arista, the longest usually subequalling the pedicels at anthesis.. Petals ± 1 mm., white.. Fruit narrowly oblong-elliptic, ± 2–2.5 × 0.75–1 mm., glabrous, when ripe blackish with pale, narrow, prominent ribs.. Fruiting calyx obsolete; stylopodia bluntly conical, exceeded by the slender, pale, deflexed styles.. Fig. 16.

Waste places in Britain. A weed in fields of winter crop cereals like wheat and barley in the Mediterranean.

The seeds are used as a spice or flavouring. They are used with meat and taste like thyme. The young stems are eaten boiled, fried or raw in salads. The basal leaves are mixed with Lavatera cretica (Malva multiflora) to make a vegetable dish.

Plants are grown from seed.