''Angelica pachycarpa'', the Portuguese angelica, is a

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of t ...

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

plant native to north western Spain and western Portugal, and naturalised in New Zealand. It inhabits forests, grasslands and stream sides and is occasionally grown as an ornamental garden subject for its glossy foliage and umbels of white flowers.

Distribution

It is present in coastal regions of north western Spain from

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

west to the Portugal-Spain border and has a

disjunct population In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

in the Berlengas archipelago off central-western Portugal.

Description

''Angelica pachycarpa'' is a short-lived, stout fleshy plant. It grows about one meter tall, with very glossy dark green foliage. It has creamy-white to greenish-white flowers in flat umbels that are ten to twenty centimeters wide. The foliage and hollow stems have a faint

anise Anise (; '), also called aniseed or rarely anix is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae native to Eurasia. The flavor and aroma of its seeds have similarities with some other spices and herbs, such as star anise, fennel, licorice, and ta ...

ed odor. The stems are grooved. The base foliage is two to three

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

and noticeable

petiolate Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, a ...

; the stem leaves are one to three pinnate with very short petioles. The fruit are up to twelve millimeters long, brown with lighter colored wings, and have a pepper-like scent. ''Angelica pachycarpa'' is found growing in the Crithmo-Armerion maritimae (Géhu 1968) community of plants in Spain and Portugal which includes these species also: ''

Armeria berlengensis ''Armeria berlengensis'' is a flowering plant, a member of a mostly Mediterranean group including the thrifts and sea pinks. It is endemic to the Berlengas, a Portuguese archipelago, where it occurs on the rocky granitic slopes of the islands. I ...

'', ''Armeria euscadiensis'', ''

Armeria maritima ''Armeria maritima'', the thrift, sea thrift or sea pink, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae. It is a compact evergreen perennial which grows in low clumps and sends up long stems that support globes of bright pink flow ...

'' subsp. ''miscella'', ''Armeria pubigera'' subsp. ''depilata'', ''Armeria pubigera'' subsp. ''pubigera'', ''Centaurea borjae'', '' Daucus gingidium'' subsp. ''atlanticum'', ''

Leucanthemum ''Leucanthemum'' is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is mainly distributed in southern and central Europe. Some species are known on other continents as introduced species, and some are cultivated as ornamental plan ...

ircutianum'' subsp. ''crassifolium'', ''Leucanthemum merinoi'', ''Leucanthemum pluriflorum'', ''

Rumex acetosa Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...

'' subsp. ''biformis'', ''Rumex rupestris'', ''Sesamoides suffruticosa'' subsp. ''latifolia'', ''

Silene uniflora ''Silene uniflora'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Caryophyllaceae known by the common name sea campion. Description ''Silene uniflora'' is a herbaceous perennial plant, similar in appearance to the bladder campion ('' Silene vulg ...

'', ''Spergularia rupicola'' subsp. ''rupicola'', ''

Trifolium occidentale ''Trifolium occidentale'', the western clover, is a clover plant belonging to the genus ''Trifolium'' in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are white, similar to white clover (''Trifolium repens''), with which it has long been confused. T ...

''.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2849410 pachycarpa