Parsnip 🌼🥕 🌱

An ancient vegetable 🏛️

The parsnip (Pastinaca sativa, Apiaceae family) is a biennial plant 40-80 cm tall.

The cultivated species derives from the wild one, obtained after many generations of selective crossings. While the root of the cultivated species is fleshy and ivory white, that of the wild species is poorly developed.

The parsnip was once highly prized, until it was replaced by the carrot 🥕 around the 11th century. However, it was still used for a long time among poor populations.

This plant is present in hilly and mountainous meadows and woods, in damp and shady places, uncultivated and fertile meadows.

The inflorescence is made up of tiny yellow flowers 🌼🐝🦋, with the petals rolled inwards.

⁉️ Did you know? 😲

The parsnip was widespread in ancient Rome 🏛️, in fact it was present in “De re coquinaria”, the most important cooking manual of the time. It is said that the emperor Tiberius had it imported from the current Germany.

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Photo Pixabay