Lovage or celery: differences

Among the many garden crops, the umbrella family is probably the richest in its representatives. This is parsley, and parsnips, and celery, and carrots, and lovage. Some of these crops are well known even to children, while others can only be identified 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.

Lovage and celery – are they the same thing or not

Usually, many people first get acquainted with celery, since this crop is more common and popular, even despite its relative whimsical cultivation. There are three varieties of celery: root, petiole and leaf. In the first variety, a large rounded underground root crop is formed, 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. A leaf celery has small petioles and small leaves.

Celery has been known since ancient times. Even the ancient Greeks and Romans highly appreciated this spicy-tasting culture and used celery not only for food, but also for medicinal purposes. It came to Our Country only at the beginning of the XNUMXth century and has now spread everywhere.

While lovage has been known on the territory of Our Country since antiquity. It was believed that the lovage growing in the garden brings happiness. And the girls used this plant to bewitch future husbands. Due to its popularity, this herb has many popular names: love-grass, dawn, love parsley, darling, lover, piper.

Lovage really strongly resembles celery, especially at a young age, 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 few differences.

What is the difference between celery and lovage

Celery, unlike lovage, is a spicy vegetable and not just a fragrant 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.

In height, plants usually reach from 60 cm to 1 m. The color of the leaves is green, saturated, but lighter than lovage. Basal leaves of celery differ from those that form on the stem. They have more pronounced fleshy petioles (especially in the petiolate variety), and leaf blades have long, sharp teeth.

The resulting inflorescences are small, have a greenish, sometimes whitish, not very attractive shade. Seeds – very small in size, brownish-brown, do not have villi.

Celery plants are biennials in nature. In the first year, they form a green leafy mass and a voluminous rhizome (in the case of the rhizome variety of celery). In the second year of life, plants throw out a peduncle, form seeds and die.

Unlike other members of the umbrella family with a similar life cycle (parsley, carrots), celery has a very long growing season. Especially in rhizomatous varieties. In order to form a normal-sized rhizome, it can take up to 200 or more days. Therefore, in most regions of Our Country, it makes sense to grow rhizomatous celery exclusively through seedlings.

In addition, this vegetable is distinguished by tenderness, capriciousness and whimsicality in cultivation. Young plants practically cannot stand frost, so celery seedlings can be planted in open ground only at the moment when the threat of frost can almost be completely said goodbye. In most regions of Our Country, 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 is not bitter.

How to distinguish lovage from celery

Of course, if you look at the cut bunches of celery and lovage greens sold on the market, even an experienced gardener will not immediately distinguish them from each other. One 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 almost indistinguishable from the lovage. And yes, they smell almost identical.

Otherwise, the lovage has a lot of features that are unique to him.

1. First of all, it is a perennial plant that is easily propagated both by seeds and by division of rhizomes.
2. Partly due to its mountainous origin, lovage is very hardy in relation to its habitats. It is easy to grow it in almost any region, with the exception of the polar latitudes.
3. The plant can also be called a giant celery, as it grows to a height of up to 2 m.
4. The roots are thick, branching, spindle-shaped, lie at a depth of about 0,5 m.
5. Large pinnately dissected leaves have a dark green tint.
6. Inflorescences are relatively large, light yellow.
7. The aroma is intense spicy.
8. The rich taste can even be called spicy with a pleasant bitterness in the aftertaste. Some believe that lovage adds a “mushroom” flavor to added dishes.
9. In cooking, mainly the herbal part of plants is used. Seeds, stems and rhizomes are more used in folk medicine.

The main similarities and differences between celery and lovage

Summing up, 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 – umbrella;
• have a similar shape and leaf pattern;
• contain a large number of substances valuable for the body and are actively used in cooking, medicine and cosmetology;
• have almost identical aroma and slightly similar taste.

Despite these similarities, celery and lovage also have many differences, which are summarized in the table:

Conclusion

After studying the materials of 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 a person, and therefore are worthy of growing in any garden.