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Petroselinum crispum
Also called Garden Parsley, Common Parsley
Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) is a bright green biennial herb in temperate climates, grown as an annual in warmer regions, widely used in cooking. It grows best in full sun in moist, well-drained soil, and is usually started from seed, which germinates slowly.
Parsley, or garden parsley (Petroselinum crispum), is a species of flowering plant in the family Apiaceae that is native to Greece, the Balkans, Algeria and Morocco. It has been introduced and naturalized in Europe and elsewhere in the world with suitable climates, and is widely cultivated as a herb and a vegetable.
It is believed to have been originally grown in Sardinia, and was cultivated around the 3rd century BC. Linnaeus stated its wild habitat to be Sardinia, from where it was brought to England in 1548 according to historical horticultural sources though literary evidence suggests parsley was used in England in the Middle Ages as early as the Anglo-Saxon period.
Parsley grows best in moist, well-drained soil, with full sun. It grows best between 22–30 °C (72–86 °F), and usually is grown from seed. Germination is slow, taking four to six weeks, and it often is difficult because of furanocoumarins in its seed coat. Typically, plants grown for the leaf crop are spaced 10 cm (3.9 in) apart, while those grown as a root crop are spaced 20 cm (7.9 in) apart to allow for the root development.
Parsley attracts several species of wildlife. Some swallowtail butterflies use parsley as a host plant for their larvae; their caterpillars are black and green striped with yellow dots, and will feed on parsley for two weeks before turning into butterflies. Bees and other nectar-feeding insects also visit the flowers.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Parsley by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
Pet safety from the ASPCA toxic and non-toxic plant lists.
