Spices and Condiments (1+1)

Description of the plant

 
• Dill is a hepaxanthic annual or biennial aromatic herb, growing to a height of about 1 to 1.20 m. The leaves are feathery and stand on sheathing foot-stalks, with linear and pointed leaflets. The leaves are compound and light green in colour. The stem is smooth, shiny and hollow, having an upright growth and bearing flat terminal compound umbels, with numerous yellow flowers, whose small petals are rolled inwards. The flowers are regular, bisexual, pentamerous and dichogamous.
• The fruits are flat, dry and groomed, commonly but erroneously these so-called seeds are produced in great quantities. They are very pungent and bitter in taste and are very light in weight. It consists of two brown, broadly oval, compressed, indehiscent, one-seeded carpels (mericarps), 3-4 mm long and 2-3 mm broad, with a thickness of 1.0 mm.
• They have five ridges, the three dorsal ridges being inconspicuous, brown, and the other two being lateral, yellowish and wing-like. The chromosome number is 2n=22. The seeds of the Indian dill are especially bold (large and good looking). They also tend to be longer and narrower in shape and their oil has a somewhat different profile.