Japanese name: セロリ Scientific name:Apium graveolens var. dulce
[Overview]
A biennial treated as an annual in cultivation.
The leaves are pinnately compound and alternate, with coarse teeth on the margins.
The petioles are long and have several ridges.
The flowers are small and greenish white, borne in large numbers in compound umbels.
[Uses]
The stems and leaves are used as a vegetable, but they have a distinctive strong fragrance, so opinions are divided.
[History]
It has been recorded since ancient Greek times, but was first used medicinally, and it became a food only in the 17th century.
In Japan it was brought back from the Korean Peninsula during the Bunroku–Keicho campaigns, and it is said to have grown wild within Okayama Castle until about the Meiji era; it came to be widely eaten only in the Showa era.
[Cultivation]
It prefers deeply tilled, well-aerated soil.
Pests and diseases include soft rot, leaf blight, mosaic disease, aphids and armyworms.
It is also a food plant of the swallowtail Papilio machaon.
