Content
Among the many garden crops, the Umbrella family is probably the richest in its representatives. This includes parsley, parsnips, celery, carrots, and lovage. Some of these crops are well known even to children, while others can only be recognized by experienced gardeners. Moreover, many are even almost sure that lovage and celery are the same plant, only under different names, these herbs are so similar in appearance in taste and aroma.
Are lovage and celery the same thing or not?
Usually, many people first become acquainted with celery, since this crop is more widespread and popular, even despite its relative whimsicality in cultivation. There are three varieties of celery: root, petiole and leaf. The first variety produces a large underground root crop of round shape, up to 15-20 cm in diameter. The second variety is characterized by thick juicy petioles, usually very delicate in taste and with large leaves. Leaf celery has small petioles and small leaves.
Celery has been known since ancient times.Even the ancient Greeks and Romans highly valued this spicy-tasting culture and used celery not only for food, but also for medicinal purposes. It came to Russia only at the beginning of the 18th century and has now spread everywhere.
While lovage has been known in Rus' since ancient times. It was believed that lovage growing in the garden brings happiness. And girls used this plant to bewitch their future husbands. Due to its popularity, this herb has many popular names: love-grass, dawn, love parsley, sweetheart, lovage, piper.
Lovage does indeed closely resemble celery, especially when young, before flowering. They have very similar leaves, pinnately dissected, shiny, on rather long petioles. But these two plants, despite some external similarity, belong to different botanical genera and have quite a lot of differences.
What is the difference between celery and lovage?
Celery, unlike lovage, is a spicy vegetable, and not just an aromatic herb. It is not only added to various dishes to give them additional aroma and taste, but also completely independent dishes are prepared from it.
In celery, absolutely all parts of the plant are actively used in cooking: rhizomes, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds.
The height of the plants usually reaches from 60 cm to 1 m. The color of the leaves is green, rich, but lighter in comparison with lovage. The basal leaves of celery differ from those that form on the stem. They have more pronounced fleshy petioles (especially the petiolate variety), and the leaf blades have long, sharp teeth.
The resulting inflorescences are small, have a greenish, sometimes whitish, not very attractive tint. The seeds are very small in size, brownish-brown in color, and do not have villi.
Celery plants are biennials by nature. In the first year, they form a green leafy mass and a voluminous rhizome (in the case of the rhizomatous variety of celery). In the second year of life, the plants throw out the peduncle, form seeds and die.
Unlike other members of the Apiaceae family with a similar life cycle (parsley, carrots), celery has a very long growing season. Especially in rhizomatous varieties. In order for a rhizome of normal size to form, it can take up to 200 or more days. Therefore, in most regions of Russia, it makes sense to grow rhizomatous celery exclusively through seedlings.
In addition, this vegetable is distinguished by its tenderness, capriciousness and whimsicalness in cultivation. Young plants practically do not tolerate frost, so celery seedlings can be planted in open ground only at the moment when the threat of frost can almost completely be said goodbye. In most regions of Russia, this period occurs no earlier than the end of May or the beginning of June.
Celery has a rather delicate and spicy taste and aroma that is attractive to many. The aftertaste has no bitterness.
How to distinguish lovage from celery
Of course, if you look at cut bunches of celery and lovage sold on the market, even an experienced gardener will not immediately distinguish them from each other.You can only notice that the leaves of lovage are darker than those of celery, and the petioles do not look as fleshy. Although the leaves from the top of the celery bushes are practically no different from lovage. And their aroma is almost identical.
Otherwise, lovage has a lot of features unique to it.
- First of all, it is a perennial plant that is easily propagated both by seeds and by dividing rhizomes.
- Partly due to its mountain origins, lovage is very hardy in relation to where it grows. It is easy to grow in almost any Russian region, with the exception of the polar latitudes.
- The plant can also be called giant celery because it grows up to 2 m in height.
- The roots are thick, branching, spindle-shaped and lie at a depth of about 0.5 m.
- Large pinnately dissected leaves have a dark green tint.
- The inflorescences are relatively large, light yellow in color.
- The aroma is intense spicy.
- The rich taste can even be called islandy with a pleasant bitterness in the aftertaste. Some people believe that lovage adds a "mushroom" flavor to added foods.
- In cooking, mainly the herbal part of plants is used. Seeds, stems and rhizomes are used more in folk medicine.
Main similarities and differences between celery and lovage
To summarize, we can say that these two plants do have some common features that allow inexperienced gardeners to confuse them with each other:
- belong to the same family - Umbellaceae;
- have a similar shape and pattern of leaves;
- contain a large number of substances valuable to the body and are actively used in cooking, medicine and cosmetology;
- They have an almost identical aroma and slightly similar taste.
Despite these similar characteristics, celery and lovage also have many differences, which are summarized in the table:
Celery | Lovage |
two-year | perennial |
There are 3 varieties: rhizome, petiole, leaf | only 1 variety - leafy |
capricious to grow, not resistant to cold | cold-resistant and unpretentious |
height up to 1 m | height up to 2 m |
two types of leaves | leaves of the same type |
leaves are lighter and softer to the touch | leaves are darker and rougher than celery |
is a vegetable crop | is a spice crop |
All parts of the plant are used for food | The leaves are mainly used for food |
delicate soft yet spicy taste | islandy-harsh taste with a slight bitterness |
reproduces mainly by seeds | propagated by seeds and division of the bush (rhizomes) |
Conclusion
After studying the materials in the article, all thoughts on the topic that lovage and celery are the same plant will disappear forever. But the main thing is that both of these garden crops can bring great benefits to humans, and therefore are worthy of growing in any garden.
