''Apium prostratum'' subsp. ''howense'' is a flowering plant in the

carrot family Apiaceae or Umbelliferae is a family of mostly aromatic flowering plants named after the type genus '' Apium'' and commonly known as the celery, carrot or parsley family, or simply as umbellifers. It is the 16th-largest family of flowering plan ...

native to Australia's Lord Howe Island. The epithet ''howense'' derives from the name of that island.

Description

It is a perennial

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

, tufted, trailing and aromatic when bruised, with stems growing to 30 cm long. The pinnate

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are 20–170 mm long. The tiny flowers are white to pinkish. The fruits are 1.5–2 mm across.

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies is endemic to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

’s

subtropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical zone, geographical and Köppen climate classification, climate zones to the Northern Hemisphere, north and Southern Hemisphere, south of the tropics. Geographically part of the Geographical z ...

Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea. There it is fairly common in sand pockets and cracks in coralline rocks on the shoreline, within the

splash zone In offshore construction, the splash zone is the transition from air to water when lowering heavy burdens into the sea. The overall efforts applied on the crane change dramatically when the load starts touching water, up to the point where it is ...

. Joseph Maiden's 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia records how 'Apium australe' could be used as a culinary vegetable and also refers to it as 'Australian Celery".

References

prostratum subsp. howense Endemic flora of Lord Howe Island Plants described in 1979 Apiales of Australia Plant subspecies Taxa named by Philip Sydney Short {{Australia-asterid-stub