Description
Parsley is widely used in European, Middle Eastern, and American cooking.Many dishes are served with fresh green chopped parsley sprinkled on top. Root parsley is very common in central, eastern and southern European cuisines, where it is used as a snack or a vegetable in many soups, stews, and casseroles.
Garden parsley is a bright green, hairless, biennial, herbaceous plant in temperate climates, or an annual herb in subtropical and tropical areas.
Where it grows as a biennial, in the first year, it forms a rosette of tripinnate leaves 10,25 cm long with numerous 1,3 cm leaflets, and a tap-root used as a food store over the winter. In the second year, it grows a flowering stem to 75 cm tall with sparser leaves and flat-topped 3,10 cm diameter umbels with numerous 2 mm diameter yellow to yellowish-green flowe The seeds are ovoid, 2,3 mm long, with prominent style remnants at the apex. One of the compounds of the essential oil is apiol. The plant normally dies after seed maturation.Plant Specifications
| Common Name | Garden parsley |
| Maximum Reachable Height | Height: 0.75 to 1 feetSpread: 0.75 to 1 feet |
| Flower Colour | Greenish-yellow |
| Bloom Time | Seasonal bloomer |
| Difficulty Level | Easy |
Planting and care
Its best to start parsley from seeds sown directly in the container because parsley has a long tap root that doesn t transplant well.Sprinkle a few seeds on the surface of the soil and cover them with an additional 1/4 inch of soil.Water the pot regularly to keep the soil moist to the touch but not soggy, and expect seedlings to emerge in three weeks or so.Clip out the excess with scissors or pinch them out between your fingernail and thumb. Pulling them out may damage the tap roots of the surrounding plants.
Petroselinum Crispum care
It is easily grown in average, consistently moist, well-drained soils in full sun to light shade. It prefers rich soils. Do not allow soils to dry out. Plants perform best in cool summer climates, and sometimes tend to languish in the hot and humid summers of the deep South. Starter plants may be planted 8-12 apart in the garden around the last spring frost date.
Plants may also be grown from seed, but this is more difficult because germination is slow and usually uneven. Seed may be started indoors about 6-8 weeks before last spring frost date. Seed may also be started outdoors in the garden as of last spring frost date. Additional seed may be planted in the garden later in spring and in mid-summer.
| Sunlight | Full sun to part shade |
| Watering | Medium |
| Soil | Moist but well-drained soil. |
| Temperature | 50 to 70 degrees C (10 to 21 degrees C ) |
| Fertilizer | Water-soluble, quick release fertilizers |
Petroselinum Crispum uses
Medicinal Use:
- Parsley has been used as a medicinal herb since the Middle Ages, but there is little evidence to support its effectiveness other than its value as a natural vitamin supplement
Culinary Use:
- Parsley has a relatively higher vitamin C content than an orange
- It is high in vitamin A, several B vitamins, calcium and iron
- The high chlorophyll content of parsley makes it a natural breath freshener
- (That s why it s always served with fish
- )The Romans used parsley at orgies to disguise the smell of alcohol on their breath
- Today parsley oil, extracted from the leaves and stems, is used in commercial shampoos, soaps, perfumes and skin lotions