Wild celery is a plant of mainly coastal ground – be it in salt-marshes or brackish ditches, by sea walls or streams – but it is rarely found inland. From June to August, it bears tiny, greenish-white flowers in terminal, short-stalked or unstalked umbels of 6-10 unequal rays, reaching 1 metre in height. There are no bracts or bracteoles and these umbels are borne on stout, erect, hairless, grooved, hollow stems. The leaves are shiny, with the lower pinnate or bi-pinnate, the upper trifoliate. The leaflets are diamond-shaped and coarsely lobed. The whole plant has a strong smell of celery. This is an uncommon native biennial plant which belongs to the Apiaceae or Carrot family.
I first saw and photographed Wild Celery near Campile in Co Wexford when it was pointed out to me by a kind fellow-botanist, Paula O’Meara.
If you are satisfied you have correctly identified this plant, please submit your sighting to the National Biodiversity Data Centre
