Caucalis platycarposL.

carrot bur parsley

WFO wfo-0000591123 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Alessia Guggisberg
fig. a Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-11 / obs. 205176282
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. b Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201389634
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. c Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 135557802
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Pavel Kacl
fig. d Pavel Kacl, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 133787970
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Patrick Hacker
fig. e Patrick Hacker, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201389599
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Andre Hosper
fig. f Andre Hosper, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10072991
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. g Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 47116049
Caucalis platycarpos, photographed by Dmitriy Bochkov
fig. h Dmitriy Bochkov, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46895294

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 36 botanical countries

Regions where Caucalis platycarpos is native: Algeria, Morocco, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Iran, Iraq, Kirgizstan, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, East European Russia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Poland, Portugal, Romania, South European Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaMoroccoAfghanistanCyprusIranIraqKirgizstanLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanAlbaniaAustriaBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaEast European RussiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKrymNW. Balkan Pen.PolandPortugalRomaniaSouth European RussiaSpainSwitzerlandTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Baleares
Native distribution of Caucalis platycarpos, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Poland POL
Portugal POR
Romania ROM
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Morocco MOR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 372 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -10.7 °C -3.6 °C 0.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.6 °C 24.9 °C 29.1 °C
Annual rainfall 519 mm 689 mm 1,195 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 72 mm 117 mm 206 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 372 research-grade observations of Caucalis platycarpos that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 32 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Ageomoron royenii (L.) Raf.
  • Caucalis bischoffii Koso-Pol.
  • Caucalis daucoides L.
  • Caucalis daucoides subsp. echinophora Domin
  • Caucalis daucoides subsp. muricata (Godr.) Čelak.
  • Caucalis daucoides subsp. muricata Bisch ex Čelak.
  • Caucalis daucoides var. muricata Godr.
  • Caucalis daucoides var. muricata Tamamsch.
  • Caucalis daucoides var. muricata Gren. & Godr.
  • Caucalis hordeicarpa Makaschv. ex Grossh.
  • Caucalis lappula Grande
  • Caucalis lappula var. muricata (Holub) Tamamsch.
  • Caucalis latifolia Lam.
  • Caucalis linearifolia Req. ex DC.
  • Caucalis longepedunculata var. oligocarpa Sennen
  • Caucalis maritima Lam.
  • Caucalis muricata Bisch.
  • Caucalis platycarpos subsp. echinophora Domin
  • Caucalis platycarpos subsp. muricata Holub
  • Caucalis platycarpos var. muricata (Bisch. ex Čelak.) V.N.Tikhom.
  • Caucalis queralti Sennen
  • Caucalis royenii (L.) Crantz
  • Caucalis tenuifolia Salisb.
  • Conium royenii L.

and 8 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.