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Caraway

Caraway

Carum carvi

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How common: Common

Alien species

Caraway is a slender plant of the carrot family and a well-known spice. It often grows in sunny grasslands, field edges and roadsides, and is also cultivated. It has feathery leaves and airy clusters of tiny white flowers, followed by the familiar aromatic “seeds.”

Did you know?

  • When crushed, the leaves and especially the fruits give a strong caraway scent.
  • It usually makes only a leaf tuft in its first year and flowers the next.

About the species

Identification

Slender, 30–60 cm tall, with an upright, branching, hairless, ridged stem that is hollow in sections. Leaves are very finely divided and feathery, much like carrot; lower leaves are larger, upper ones smaller. Many tiny white (sometimes pinkish) flowers sit in flat-topped, umbrella-like clusters; the stalks within a cluster are clearly unequal, giving an uneven look. Later it carries narrow, brown, slightly curved aromatic “seeds.” Smells strongly of caraway when crushed. Beware confusion with cow parsley, yarrow, and the poisonous fool’s parsley and hemlock. Flowers in Finland from June to August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

meadow

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Open, sunny grassy places, field margins, roadsides, banks and around yards; often persists near old cultivation. Common in southern and central Finland and up to the Bothnian Bay; rarer in Koillismaa and Central Lapland, farther north only occasional.

Sources

Photo: Евгений Маринкин, CC BY 4.0 https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/6188594924

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki leviäimet, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39229

Text: Pinkka: Verso- ja leviäintunnistus - Kaikki versot, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39229

Text: Pinkka: Laaja maatalouslajintuntemus 4 op - Koppisiemeniset, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39229

Text: Pinkka: BIO-516 Hyötykasvit - Maustekasveja, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39229

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumina

See also