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Wild Angelica

©Philip Precey

Wild angelica

The red-tinged, flower clusters of Wild angelica smell just like the garden variety, which is used in making cake decorations. Wild angelica likes damp places, such as wet meadows and wet woodlands.

Scientific name

Angelica sylvestris

When to see

July to September

Species information

Statistics

Height: up to 2m
Common.

About

Wild angelica is a common and robust plant of damp meadows, ditches and wet woodlands. As a member of the carrot family (an umbellifer), it displays large, umbrella-like clusters of purple-tinged flowers between July and September which are attractive to a range of insects. These flowers smell like the garden variety of angelica which is used to make sweet cake decorations.

How to identify

The umbels of Wild angelica flowers are robust and rounded, and tinged with red. Its purple stems are hollow, and its lower leaves are divided.

Distribution

Widespread.

Did you know?

Garden angelica, the close relative of Wild angelica, has become naturalised in some areas of the UK, especially around London. Here, it grows on damp waste ground and its seeds disperse downstream to take root on riverbanks.