We found Seseli libanotis looking remarkably like Daucus carota (Wild Carota) in full flower on a grassy verge alongside a busy road in Cambridgeshire. The flower head is supposed to resemble a moon shape but to me it looked like many other umbellifers. The individual flowers resemble Anthriscus sylvestris (Cow Parsley) but the umbels are tighter like those of the Wild Carrot. It is slightly hairy and can be perennial or biennial.

Seseli libanotis is a very rare plant in the British Isles with populations only found in Cambridgeshire and the South Downs in England. It is absent from Wales, Scotland and Ireland.

Seseli libanotis is host to a special fungus: Seseli libanotidis (Moon carrot Rust) which grows inside the plant and produces orange spores on the outside. As the host plant is very rare in the British Isles the fungus is even rarer and so is of conservation concern to mycologists.

Seseli libanotis Moon Carrot Roadside verge, Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, 3rd September 2001 Previous   Next	Seseli libanotis Moon Carrot Roadside verge, Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire, 3rd September 2001 Previous   Next
Seseli libanotis Moon Carrot	Seseli libanotis Moon Carrot fruit

Cherry Hinton chalk pits and roadside verge, Cherry Hinton Cambridgeshire, 3rd September 2001

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