Apiaceae, also called the carrot family or umbelliferae, is a large plant family identified by its umbrella-shaped flower clusters (umbels); it includes many common culinary herbs, spices, and vegetables, such as carrot, parsley, fennel, dill, celery, cumin, and coriander.
Apiaceous vegetables tend toward sweet, earthy, sometimes licorice-like flavors, and the family's seeds (cumin, coriander, caraway, fennel) are widely used as spices and are also traditionally credited with aiding digestion. Different members are prominent in different cuisines: dill in Eastern European cooking, coriander in Indian and Mexican cooking, and fennel and parsley throughout Mediterranean cooking.
Because several Apiaceae species closely resemble toxic relatives such as hemlock, foragers should never gather wild members of this family without expert identification.