Daucus

Daucus is a worldwide genus of herbaceous plants of the celery family Apiaceae of which the best-known species is the cultivated carrot. Daucus has about 45 species.<ref name=powo/> The oldest carrot fossil is 1.3 Ma, and was found on the island of Madeira in the Atlantic Ocean.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Description

Members of Daucus are distinguished within the family Apiaceae by their leaves which are 2–3 pinnatisect with narrow end sections. The genus primarily consists of biennial plants but also includes some annual plants and some perennial herbs. All Daucus have bristly stems. The inflorescences are umbels. The flowers are mostly white, with bracts and bracteoles. The petals may be pure white, reddish, pinkish or yellowish. They are emarginate above and have pointed, wrapped lobules. The petals are often unequal in size, with petals at the outermost edge of the inflorescence often being larger. The fruit is an ovoid to ellipsoidal schizocarp, cylindrical or compressed, with ciliate primary ribs and secondary ribs with a row of hooked spines.<ref name=CABI>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Some species have a small pale or white edible taproot, similar to a radish, which may or may not be bitter in taste.

Ecology

Daucus pollination is carried out by insects, primarily: Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera. It is a cosmopolitan genus with endemic species on most continents as well as on many islands and in isolated areas.Template:Citation needed The genus centre is in North Africa and Southwest Asia in the Temperate Zone.Template:Citation needed Prolonged dry or cold weather tends to retard growth in Daucus species, but the genus as a whole is evolutionarily adaptive to these conditions.Template:Citation needed Some Daucus species accumulate substantial resources in large underground taproots without impeding plant development.Template:Citation needed Native to Europe is the carrot, with several subspecies, including subsp. carota (wild carrot), subsp. gummifer (sea carrot) and subsp. sativus, a cultivated form of carrot, also called garden carrot).

Four members of the Daucus genus were examined to determine differences in isoenzyme patterns and plastid DNA. The four were: Daucus carota subspecies sativus cultivar Danvers, D. carota subsp. gummifer, D. capillifolius, and D. pusillus. Although only one form of HSDH (homoserine dehydrogenase) was present in each Daucus line, the rate of migration of HSDH from cv. Danvers was different from that of the others. Multiple isoenzymic forms of ADH were present in each Daucus cultivar. Comparison of endonuclease restriction fragment patterns from plastid DNAs digested by BamHI revealed only small differences between plastid DNAs of cv. Danvers and subsp. gummifer, whereas large differences were observed between cv. Danvers and D. pusillus plastid DNA patterns. No differences were found between cv. Danvers and D. capillifolius plastid DNA patterns when examined using eight different restriction enzymes. The data indicate that specific isoenzyme and organelle DNA restriction fragment patterns will be useful markers for precise identification of genomes of different Daucus species.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Species

45 species are currently accepted.<ref name = powo/> Template:Div col

• Daucus aleppicus Template:Small – Lebanon and Syria
• Daucus aureus Template:Small – yellow fruit's carrot, golden carrot; Mediterranean basin and Canary Islands
• Daucus bicolor Template:Small
• Daucus biseriatus Template:Small – Algeria and Morocco
• Daucus broteri Template:Small – Brotero's carrot; southeastern Europe to Iran
• Daucus carota Template:Small – wild carrot, Queen Anne’s lace; Europe, Northern Africa, western and Central Asia, southern China, introduced elsewhere
• Daucus conchitae Template:Small – Dodecanese and southwestern Turkey
• Daucus crinitus Template:Small – Iberian Peninsula and northwestern Africa
• Daucus decipiens Template:Small – Madeira
• Daucus della-cellae Template:Small – Libya
• Daucus durieua Template:Small – Durieu's carrot; Canary Islands, Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, Levant
• Daucus edulis Template:Small – Madeira and Selvagens
• Daucus elegans Template:Small – Canary Islands
• Daucus glaber Template:Small – eastern Mediterranean to northern Iran
• Daucus glochidiatus Template:Small – Australia and New Zealand
• Daucus gracilis Template:Small – Algeria
• Daucus guttatus Template:Small – eastern Mediterranean to Iran
• Daucus hochstetteri Template:Small – Eritrea and Ethiopia
• Daucus humilis Template:Small – Cape Verde
• Daucus incognitus Template:Small – eastern tropical Africa from Ethiopia to Mozambique
• Daucus insularis Template:Small – Cape Verde
• Daucus involucratus Template:Small – southern and eastern Greece to Crete and western and southern Turkey, Cyprus, and central Israel
• Daucus jordanicus Template:Small Libya, and Syria to Jordan
• Daucus mauritii Template:Small – northern Morocco
• Daucus melananthus Template:Small – central and eastern tropical Africa, Yemen, Madagascar, and South Africa
• Daucus microscias Template:Small – northern Iraq to northwestern and north-central Iran
• Daucus minusculus Template:Small – Morocco, Portugal, and Sardinia
• Daucus mirabilis Template:Small – northeastern Libya
• Daucus montanus Template:Small – Mexico to Central America and the Andes
• Daucus muricatus Template:Small – Azores and western and central Mediterranean
• Daucus pedunculatus Template:Small – eastern tropical Africa from central Ethiopia to Mozambique
• Daucus pumilus Template:Small – Mediterranean basin and the Canary Islands
• Daucus pusillus Template:Small (syn. D. arcanus Template:Small) – American wild carrot; western Canada to northern Mexico and the southeastern US, and southeastern Brazil to southern South America
• Daucus reboudii Template:Small – northern Algeria and Tunisia
• Daucus ribeirensis Template:Small – Cape Verde
• Daucus rouyi Template:Small – Corsica, Sardinia, Algeria, and Tunisia
• Daucus sahariensis Template:Small – Morocco to Libya and Sinai
• Daucus setifolius Template:Small – southern Spain and northwestern Africa
• Daucus setulosus Template:Small – southeastern Europe to western Turkey, Syria and Lebanon, and northwestern Libya
• Daucus subsessilis Template:Small – Cyprus, the Levant, southern Iran, and the northeastern Arabian Peninsula
• Daucus syrticus Template:Small – Tunisia, Libya, and northern Egypt
• Daucus tenuisectus Template:Small – southwestern Morocco
• Daucus virgatus Template:Small – Algeria and Tunisia

Allergenicity

Daucus has an OPALS allergy scale rating of 10 out of 10, indicating extremely high potential to cause allergic reactions.<ref name = "Ogren">Template:Cite book</ref>

References

Template:Reflist The article is based on the following sources:

• Seybold Siegmund (eds): interactive Schmeil-Fitschen (CD-Rom), Source & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2001/2002, Template:ISBN
• Daucus, Flora of China

External links

• species list on the Germplasm Resources Information Network
• Daucus - Synonyms Index synonymique France (French)