Angelica sylvestris L., Wild Angelica

Account Summary

Growth form and preferred habitats

A rather large semi-rosette, short-lived, tap-rooted, glabrous, hapaxanth (ie a plant that is either annual, biennial, or requiring several or even many years' growth to reach flowering and fruiting state). [See below for discussion/explanation of this topic.] A. sylvestris produces hollow, purplish, striate stems up to 200 cm tall. The glossy, dark green bi-pinnate or tri-pinnate lower leaves with their inflated stalk and the distinctive regularly serrate margins of the large leaf-lobes, set with sharp-looking cartilaginous teeth, make A. sylvestris very easily recognisable even in the vegetative state (Tutin 1980). The only other Irish umbellifer it might just possibly be confused with is Ligusticum scoticum (Scots Lovage), which is a maritime species and, therefore, does not occur in Fermanagh (Tutin 1980; Jonsell & Karlsson 2010).

Although it is a very common and widespread plant throughout B & I, the biology of A. sylvestris does not appear to have been the subject of much detailed study. The species possesses a stout taproot 8-20 mm thick, yet there is uncertainty about just how perennial and long-lived individuals may be (Jonsell & Karlsson 2010). For instance, Grime et al. (1988, 2007) reported that observations in winter suggest that around 50% of plants are monocarpic, dying after flowering, the other 50% being polycarpic perennials. After a natural history study, comparing two populations on a coastal headland and in a marsh in Wales, Knight (1997) concluded that the plants in his study were entirely monocarpic. Mowing or grazing prevents individuals reaching the threshold size necessary to initiate flowering, a feature found both in many short-lived polycarpic perennials and monocarpic biennials, which frequently prolongs their vegetative life almost indefinitely (Forbes 1989). The latter plants (either annuals or biennials), with delayed flowering and fruiting, are now described as 'hapaxanthic' (Jonsell & Karlsson 2010) and this appears to be the situation in A. sylvestris.

A. sylvestris prefers well-lit growing conditions, although it can tolerate partial shade in openings or margins of woodland, in fen-carr, or on N-facing cliffs and slopes (Grime et al. 1988, 2007; Hill et al. 1999).

The chief ecological demands Wild Angelica makes are for constantly moist but not submerged soil that provides a moderate supply of nutrients and that in reaction varies between moderately acidic to calcareous. A. sylvestris is quite frequently recorded in the Fermanagh Flora Database in habitat lists along with species of strongly acidic Sphagnum bog, but it never grows on waterlogged moss peat, being confined to the sloping fen margins of such sites.

The characteristically wide range of habitats in B & I which supply the modest requirements of this species includes sea cliffs, although these are not represented in landlocked Fermanagh. The established strategy of the species is described as C/CR, ie intermediate between Competitor and Competitive Ruderal (Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

Wild Angelica is not a gregarious, patch-forming species and it never (well, hardly ever!) forms a large or even very conspicuous component of the vegetation cover in the plant communities in which it grows. The typical 'Domin cover value' of the species in many vegetation communities is less than four percent (ie, Domin values 1-3, whether this is made up of few, several or many individuals) (Rodwell et al. 1991 (b) & 1992).This is true even whenever there is protection from grazing or other forms of disturbance, or when it is a 'constant species' in the vegetation community, eg in mesotrophic tall-herb grassland or on montane cliff ledges (NVC MG2 and U17) (Rodwell et al. 1992).

Angelica sylvestris certainly does not make the same visual impact that other equally robust, common umbellifers such as Anthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley) and Heracleum sphondylium (Hogweed). This is probably because those species are so abundant and extremely successful at maintaining large populations, or very frequent individuals, in conspicuous situations along roadsides everywhere throughout these islands. In the roadside verge habitat in particular, while it is often present, Wild Angelica is but a minor player compared with these two big hitters!

Fermanagh occurrence

A. sylvestris is the eighth most frequently recorded vascular plant species in Fermanagh, a sure indication, if one did not already know it, of the enormous amount of damp (or regularly wet but drained) rough grassland found in all but the most extreme environments in the county. It is present in 491 tetrads, almost 93% of those in the VC, making it the ninth most widespread species we have in the Fermanagh Flora Database – just after Urtica dioica (Common Nettle).

Typical habitats of this species in Fermanagh include marshy or damp rough grassland, open areas of woods, scrub, meadows and ditches and in tall herb vegetation beside lakes, rivers and streams. It also occurs to a lesser extent on N-facing cliffs, in quarries and on damp roadside verges.

Flowering reproduction

Large enough plants with sufficient photosynthetic reserves flower from July to September. Species regeneration is entirely by seed, there being no means of horizontal vegetative spread or reproduction. The inflorescence is a large, domed, compound umbel 4-7 cm high and 8.5-17 cm wide with 15-40 sub-equal rays. The umbel rays and peduncle are densely puberulent or papillose (Tutin 1980; Jonsell & Karlsson 2010). The greenish-white or pinkish-white flowers are very numerous, each inflorescence bearing more than 1,000. They are hermaphrodite, protandrous, offer copious, unconcealed nectar and pollen, and, typical of the family, they attract a range of unspecialised insect pollinators including beetles, flies and bees (Grime et al. 1988, 2007). The schizocarp fruit, 4-5 mm long, is oblong to almost rectangular in outline, dorsally flattened and the two mericarps have broadly winged lateral ridges (Tutin 1980). The wings are wider than the mericarps themselves, undulate and not closely appressed to one another (Sell & Murrell 2009).

Seed dispersal

Seedlings are seldom observed, but that is quite normal in very many plant species. Since the mericarps are very distinctly winged, dispersal in A. sylvestris is probably to some degree effected by wind. Ridley (1930) reported that the 'seeds' (ie the mericarps) float, so presumably they may also be dispersed in moving water.

Seed survival

In respect of the species longevity in the soil seed bank, again there is no consensus available: of 22 estimates in the survey made of data from across NW Europe, 15 references suggested A. sylvestris seed is transient; three believed it short-term persistent (surviving 1-5 years); one study considered it persisted long-term (more than five years); and three estimates were indeterminate (Thompson et al. 1997). It is all too obvious that a little more systematic observation could clarify many of the basic life-history details which are at present missing for this significant indicator species.

British and Irish occurrence

The New Atlas hectad map shows A. sylvestris is very common and widespread throughout the whole of B & I.

European and world occurrence

A. sylvestris belongs to the Eurosiberian boreo-temperate phytogeographic element and is common and widespread in most of Europe and parts of temperate W & C Asia, although having said that, it becomes scarce or absent in drier, warmer parts of S Europe. It has also been occasionally or rarely introduced to easternmost N America (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1421; Sell & Murrell 2009).

Threats

None.

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