Petroselinum (
parsley) is a genus of two species of
flowering plants in the family
Apiaceae, native to western and southern
Europe and northern
Africa. They are bright green hairless
biennial herbaceous plants, rarely
annual plants. In the first year, they form a rosette of pinnate to tripinnate leaves and a tap root used as a food store over the winter, in the second year growing a flowering stem up to 1 m tall with sparser leaves and
umbels of white or pinkish to yellowish-green flowers.