Celery
Apium graveolens var. dulce · Carrot family
Plant portrait
Celery forms a clump of fleshy stalks carrying divided leaves. These stalks are the leaf petioles; this crop differs from celeriac with its swollen base.
Harvested part
The leaf stalks and leaves.
What to watch for
Watch new stalks form at the centre, then lengthen and thicken. Their colour depends on the variety and growing method; a pale stalk alone does not indicate maturity.
Growth stages of the celery
Plotilo illustrates the celery in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the celery (the carrot family): the carrot, the parsnip, the tuberous chervil, the Florence fennel and the Hamburg parsley. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.