Fennel

Foeniculum vulgare

Apiaceae

Anise-sweet seed for gas, colic folklore, and after-dinner breath.

Culinary seed and bulb. Do not confuse with poison hemlock.

Parts used: Ripe seed · Bulb and frond as food
Traditional notes: Bloating · After-meal cramp · Fresh breath · Nursing folklore (evidence mixed)
Grow · USDA 6b: Perennial / biennial, USDA 6–10. Bronze and green types. Direct-sow; it resents transplanting. Do not plant beside dill if you want true seed. In work: Apr · May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Harvest: Seed heads when they tan; bulb when tennis-ball plump.

Sow in place. It resents transplanting and will hybridize with dill.
Bag ripening umbels or the birds get the seed.
Do not confuse wild feathery Apiaceae — hemlock is on the toxic drawer.

Safety

Known Apiaceae allergy Unidentified wild lookalikes

Companions

Keep apart from Carrot, Cilantro, Dill, Green bean, Pea, Sweet basil.

Lookalikes

Poison hemlock — Anise-scented foliage is not a field test. Poison hemlock has been called ‘wild fennel’ by people who then got very still.
Dill — Anise cousins in the same bed will cross and confuse a seed harvest. Neither is hemlock, and both have been mistaken for it.

Lore

Prometheus hid fire in a fennel stalk. Roman women chewed the seed to keep hunger off; the bulb is a later, sweeter invention. The feathery leaf is why people confuse it with things that kill you — look, then cook.

The Herbarium — a teaching catalog, not a clinic. Traditional use is history, not a prescription. USDA 6b dates are a week either way, not a promise. Do not eat, drink, or harvest a plant you cannot name.