This site and its content are under development.

Petroselinum crispum (Mill.) Nyman ex A.W. Hill, Garden Parsley

Account Summary

Introduced, archaeophyte, a very rare garden escape.

1884; Barrington, R.M.; on the walls of Old Crom Castle.

May and July.

This very familiar glabrous, heterophyllous, tap-rooted, aromatic biennial or short-lived perennial has been in cultivation as a potherb in B & I gardens since at least 995 AD (Harvey 1981). Records of it naturalised as an established garden escape are widely scattered around these islands on cliffs, rocks, banks, walls, ruins and waste ground, especially in coastal regions (Clement & Foster 1994; M. Southam, in: Preston et al. 2002; Cat Alien Pl Ir). Many or most of the naturalised parsley plants do not have the crisped leaves of the culinary herb cultivars, but presumably they have arisen from cultivated stock nevertheless, and have reverted to the flat-leaved wild form, the gene(s) for crisped leaves having segregated out (P.M. Smith, in: Simmonds 1976). The variation in leaf morphology appears to be dependent on a few genes only (Jonsell & Karlsson 2010).

Having remarked on the widespread B & I occurrence, the New Atlas hectad map indicates that records are very thinly sprinkled across Ireland. There are 22 hectads of the most recent date class (1987-1999) on the map of Ireland and they are mainly coastal, the plant being very rarely recorded at inland sites.

Records prove that Garden Parsley has persisted at its only Fermanagh site, on the walls of Old Crom Castle, since at least 1884. It is still plentiful on the castle walls today, having perhaps rather surprisingly survived the re-pointing of the stonework in the 1990s.

In Britain, P. crispum is much more frequent than in Ireland, the New Atlas map displaying 169 hectads with the 1987-1999 date class. However, English and Welsh records are greatly concentrated to the SE of a line on the map drawn between Cardiff and Hull, which represents the sector with the most Continental climate on the island. Also noticeable is that towards the N & W of Britain, Garden Parsley becomes decidedly coastal in its occurrence, a fact that suggests its growth and reproduction is influenced by milder temperatures in maritime regions.

Although the plant is long-persistent at its only Fermanagh site, commonly Garden Parsley is a mere casual in most of B & I. Even when long survival does arise, which appears to happen most often in coastal sites, the plant shows little tendency to spread in the wild, even though it can seed itself and it obviously 'jumps the garden wall' quite frequently, especially in the warmer areas of these islands. In cultivation, it is raised from seed, but it is always slow to germinate.

The centre of origin of P. crispum is obscure on account of its long period in cultivation, but it is probably native in the warmer parts of SE Europe, possibly in the Mediterranean basin from Sardinia to Greece (Clapham et al. 1962). An alternative suggestion is in W Asia, where it is widespread today (Clement & Foster 1994). If either of these possible origins is correct, it helps to explain why the species is not fully adapted to life in the wild in B & I.

Threats

None.