Domesticated carrots are cultivars of a subspecies of Daucus carota (subsp. Sativus).

It is a biennial plant, growing from seed, overwintering as a swollen tap root, then flowering and dying in the second season.

The stems of the plant are hairy.

The flowers may be pink in bud and usually have a reddish flower-like structure in the centre of the umbel that serves to attract pollinating insects. The lower bracts situated beneath each umbel are three-forked or pinnate, which distinguishes the plant from other white-flowered umbellifers. These bracts may project beyond the umbel and, after flowering is over, they curl up and contain the umbels as the seeds develop. In this stage the appearance sometimes resembles a bird's nest (hence one of its English names). The globular cluster of spiky seeds may break off and become a tumbleweed, so enabling wide seed distribution.

This is an annual plant, sometimes overwintering.

The overall appearance of the plant in flower is of a softly domed mass of tiny, delicate flowers with the leaves not clearly visible at first. Pollinating insects include flies and beetles.

The leaves are unusual, blue-green in colour, long, strap-like, subdivided and with serrated margins, sometimes curved in sickle form. The upper and lower sides are identical, the texture leathery, adapted to conserve water and so enable the plant to live in dry conditions (xerophytic).

Angular branching of stems gives a spreading, partly spherical outline to whole plant.

When the flowers fade the elongated seeds (2 per flower) can be seen developing and the umbels become more dense and heavy.

The stems are finely ribbed, round in cross section and almost leafless near the tips. The leaves are variable in shape (see buttons beneath text for detailed photos), arranged alternately and sparsely along stem.

Flowers are small and delicate, lacking sepals or bracts. When petals fall, small, rounded to egg-shaped, ribbed seed pods are revealed with short spike (remains of style).

This perennial plant is common in Central Europe. The stem is deeply grooved, hairless, branched, leafy and hollow.

Leaves are compound with oval to elongated, usually pointed leaflets and sharply-toothed margins. Basal leaves tend to be larger and lighter in shade than the glossy dark green leaves half way up the flowering stems.

The umbels are approx 5-6cm in diameter.

Individual tiny flowers with 5 petals, approx. 1.5mm long, starry in arrangement.

The dry fruit is egg shaped (ovoid), 2-3mm long with a 5-part structure in cross section.

This is a common, rampant perennial plant, spreading rapidly in favourable conditions by means of rhizomes, laterally branching, underground stems that produce daughter plants at regular intervals resulting in large colonies in favourable conditions. The rhizomes are thin and easily breakable (so pulling up one plant doesn’t bring a lot of others with it).

It has limited seed dispersal ability and a short-lived seed bank (the seeds do not survive many years in the ground if germination is prevented by unfavourable conditions) so the colonisation of completely new areas is unlikely without human help (garden transplants). However, once established, it is highly competetive, even preventing the establishment of tree and shrub seedlings.

Considered a pest by modern gardeners as so difficult, almost impossible, to eradicate, in Medieval times it was valued as a remedy for gout ( ‘Podagra’ is a name for gout) and rheumatism, also as a tasty and nourishing wild vegetable, an excellent source of calcium, vitamin C, carotin und iron. (It is distinguishable from similar inedible members of the carrot family by the triangular leaf stems). It is also a valuable food plant for a variety of moth and butterfly larvae.

The leaf was thought to resemble a goat’s foot (hence the name, Greek: aigeos=goat, pous-podos=foot). They are alternately arranged along the stem and give good ground coverage in shady woodland areas. The stems are ribbed and hairless, the seeds resemble ‘Kümmel’, fruits are double-seeded, elongated (3-4mm long), slightly bulbous.

This is a deeply rooted, perennial plant with an unpleasant smell (hence the English name Hogweed). The branched stems are thick, hollow, striated and with stiff hairs. Leaves are large, up to 50cm in length, roughly serrated and hairy, subdivided into 3 or 5 lobed segments with a large bract at the base that serves to protect it when in bud.

The flowers are carried in large, domed, double umbels with 15-30 rays at the tips of each flowering stem, up to 20cm in diameter. Each smaller umbel is also domed and consists of tiny flowers with yellow-greenish centres. The flowers have 5 heart-shaped petals, the outer ones in each cluster noticeably larger than the inner ones. The nectar is produced openly on a disc in the centre of each flower and so attracts short-tongued insects such as wasps, flies and beetles as pollinators.

The small fruits are flattened and winged, elliptical and hairy. This makes them easier to catch on the fur of passing animals. Wind may aid seed dispersal too.

This perennial plant is native to Eurasia and grows in a wide variety of habitats, tolerating full shade as well as full sun, dry as well as moist environments.

The leaves are large and subdivided into opposite pairs of ovoid, serrated leaflets, up to 8cm long with sharp points. the leaf stalk (petiole( has a groove running along its upper edge.

The flowering stems are erect, thick and hollow with a whitish dusting.

The double umbel of tiny flowers is characterised by its long, stiff 'spokes' with downy hairs and its large domed shape up to 20cm in diameter. The flowers themselves have petals that twist and point upwards giving an untidy look to the dense mass. They are pollinated by a wide variety of insects including small flies, wasps and beetles, attracted by nectar produced on the surface of central discs.

This is an annual or sometimes overwintering biennial plant, usually developing each year fresh from seed.

The flower umbels are delicate, carried on few (5-12) long stalks or spokes. Pollinators are flies attracted to the nectar produced on a central disc in each flower.

Stems are roughly hairy with bristles lying flat and pointing backwards.

The feathery leaves are dark green, twice subdivided with an overall elongated shape.

Fruits are in clusters of egg-shaped structures, approx 3mm long and covered with hooked bristles that catch onto fur of passing animals.

This is a biennial plant that produces several stems from 'offshoots' of the root resulting in masses of plants colonising favourable locations. It is an endangered species in parts of Austria and slightly poisonous.

The stems branch repeatedly, produce a thick growth of leaves near the ground and masses of double umbel inflorescences of tiny delicate flowers at their tips. The stems are slightly thickened below the nodes.

Fruits are long and smooth, up to 1cm in length. They can remain on the plant over winter. When ripe and in dry conditions they burst apart if touched by passing animals and the 2 seeds they carry are shot away some distance from the parent plant.

This is an endangered species and should never be picked!

It grows in small groups or isolated, a tall plant, slim on account of its relatively short, purplish-red branches growing out at sharp angles from the main stem.

Leaves are sparse and parsley-like, sub-divided 2-3 times with a blunt tip to the terminal leaflet.

Flowers are a striking pale yellow colour, very small irregular petals.

Favours warm sunny locations, found sporadically in Vienna, Burgenland and Lower Austria but has probably died out in other parts of Austria.

Wild parsnip, a native of Eurasia, is a biennial plant producing a rosette of mid-green, simple pinnate leaves with 2-7 pairs of opposite leaflets with coarsely toothed, sometimes lobed margins. The leaf stems (petioles) are grooved and have sheathed bases.

The taproot accumulates food reserves during the growing season but there is no flowering. Under the effect of frost this edible taproot becomes sweeter. Wild grazing animals such as deer and sheep feed on the leaves and wild boar dig for its roots.

During the second season the flower stems grow up to 150cm high bearing a few small, stemless leaves. The stem is grooved and hollow except at the nodes where bracts form a sheath for each of the paired, sparsely arranged, lateral branches. Compound (double) umbels approximately 20cm in diameter, composed of inconspicuous yellow flowers, form at the tips of the sparse branches. Each flower has 5 stamens and a pistil projecting clearly beyond the tiny curved petals. At this time the tap root becomes woody and inedible.

The fruits are pale brown, double-seeded achenes, flat, egg-shaped and narrowly winged, 4-8mm long.

This thistle-like plant is in fact unrelated to the thistles and belongs instead with the carrot family.

Eryngo is a hairless, thorny perennial. The leaves are tough and stiff, whitish-green with toothed margins. The basal leaves are long-stalked and relatively simple in shape, though with a spiky margin. The upper ones attach directly to the stem and may have a deeply indented shape.

The flowers are carried in a compact, globular head surrounded by numerous specialised leaves (bracts) radiating in a star shape. They are narrow and smooth-margined with sharp thorny tips. The flowers themselves are greenish white and narrowly tubular. The nectar can only be reached by long tongued (proboscis) insects such as bees and butterflies.

The roots grow up to 2m deep and so enable the plant to survive in dry environments. The thorns protect it from being eaten by grazing animals.

When the scaly seed pods are ripe and in windy conditions, the whole plant breaks at a given place on the stem near the root and rolls away over the open grassy landscape, spreading seeds as it goes. Sometimes many balls get hooked up and roll together creating weird moving figures known as 'Witches of the Steppe' (Steppenhexen).