Myrrhis

Myrrhis odorata (L) Scop.            Sweet Cicely

NOMENCLATURE
Myrrhis : from Greek, myrra (myrrh), from perfume.
odorata : scented.
Cicely  : from Greek, seseli. Dioscorides.
OTHER NAMES : British myrrh, sweet chervil, great chervil, smooth cicely, sweet fern,
sweet humlock, sheperd’s needle. Anise, (Dur). Wilanise, annaseed, myrrh, (Cumb).
Cow—weed,  sweet cis, (Yks). Myrrh, (Aberdeen). Roman plant, switch, (Lancs). Sweet
bracken, (Lakes). Sweet— thumlick, (Berw) . Sweet withy, (1 o W). Sweets, (N Eng).
Cerfeuil d’Espagne, (France). Mirride odorosa, (Italy). Perifolio, (Spain). Englisher/ Spanischer
kerbie, (Germany). Roomse kervel, (Dutch). Sodskaerm, (Danish).

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION

TYPE: stout erect puberulent bright green perenn ial, 60—200cm. Hs. AROMA : fruit & leaves  stron gly of aniseed/clove if crushed. Taste sugary.ROOTS : large. fleshy, sweet, aromatic. SHOOTS : triangular lacey         
  leaves with a simple wing coming up from each side of its root.   UMBELS : compound. Gracefull heads. 1—5 cm diam, terminal, rays   5—10,
hairy. Terminal umbel with male and hermaphrodite   flowers, stout rays, lateral
with male only with slender rays.LEAVES : up to 30cm. 2—3 pinnate, gale beneath, usually with whitish markings, segments
oblong—ovate, pinnatisect. The lobes coarsely serrate,10—30rnm. Petioles of stem leaves
sheathing. Leafless in winter. Cotyledons tapered at. base, without a petiole.BRACTS: absent. Bracteoles 5, lancolate—aristate, with long slender apex, whitish.FLOWERS: white, petals unequal, outer radiating. Styles form stylopodium. Polin. by bees. Fl. 5—7.FRUIT : 15—25mm linear—oblong, short beak, sharply angled with short forward pointing
bristles on the angles, dark brown, mature shiny. Commisure broad, carpophore present.
Vittae slender. Pedicels 5mm, sparsley hairy. Styles slender, diver ging, much > than
stylopodium. Patent or recur— ved in fruit. Stigma capitate. 2n=22.
HABITAT : damp pastures, meadows, roadsides, wood margins, scrub,
streamsides in uplands & mountains.
DISTRIBUTION : intro. Commonest spring flrng Umbellifer in N. Britain from Glam to Licoln.
Rare in S. Most common at Selattyn roadside verges. Rare over Offas Dyke in England,
a cultural boundary. Outside doors of Cregneash Manx museum, Isle Of Man. Common
in Pyreness, Alps, Appenines in France. Naturalised in Germany. Also in W. part of Balklans.