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Garden Angelica

Garden Angelica

Angelica archangelica

Identify the Garden Angelica from a photo and log your finds with Florapass.

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How common: Common

Garden angelica is a very large, aromatic herb of northern regions. It grows in damp places such as stream banks, river edges and springs, and is also grown in gardens as a spice plant. Its big, ball‑shaped heads of greenish‑white flowers stand on a thick hollow stem. Warning: the sap can irritate and burn the skin in sunlight.

Did you know?

  • Protected south of Oulu Province.
  • Its name comes from a legend that the archangel Gabriel introduced the plant to people.

About the species

Identification

Very tall, robust herb, often 1–2 m. Stem smooth, hollow and thick, often reddish‑purple. Leaves huge and strongly scented; the base of each leaf is swollen and wraps the stem. Each leaf makes a broad triangle and is divided two or three times into wide, unevenly toothed pieces; the tip piece is split into three. Flower heads are round, ball‑like clusters of tiny greenish‑white flowers. Later they form oval, two‑part dry fruits with strong ribs and thick edges that smell pleasant when crushed. Look‑alikes: wild angelica is smaller with pinkish flower heads; the coastal subspecies grows on open stony seashores and smells harsher. Flowers in Finland in July–August.

Plant group

Herbaceous plants

Habitat

herb-rich forest, shore

Toxicity

Its sap can burn the skin in sunlight – do not touch it with bare hands. Source: HUS Poison Information Centre (Finland), tel. 0800 147 111.

Flowering

Jun–Aug

About the habitat

Moist, sunny places such as stream and river banks, spring areas, wet thickets and mountain meadows, often in northern and upland regions. Also widely cultivated and persisting near gardens. Mostly in Lapland; common in the fells and scarce farther south, with a few isolated sites in Central Finland.

Sources

Photo: Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, Public domain https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Koehler1887-GardenAngelica.jpg

Text: Pinkka: Puutarhakasvitiede 1 - Ravintokasvit, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39236

Text: Pinkka: BIO-514 Pohjois-Suomen putkilokasvit - Actaea-Carduus, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39236

Text: Pinkka: IPS-153 Flora of Subarctic Europe - Actaea-Carduus, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39236

Text: Pinkka: A Pohjolan kasveja - Abies-Allium, CC BY 4.0 https://laji.fi/taxon/MX.39236

Text: Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0 https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A4in%C3%B6nputki

See also