Parsnip
Pastinaca sativa · Carrot family
Plant portrait
Cultivated parsnips develop a long pale root beneath compound leaves with separate leaflets. Their foliage differs from the more finely divided leaves of carrots.
Harvested part
The root of cultivated parsnips.
What to watch for
Follow the appearance and development of leaves. Most of the root remains hidden in the soil: the harvest view exposes it for illustration without predicting its actual length or shape.
Growth stages of the parsnip
Plotilo illustrates the parsnip 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 parsnip (the carrot family): the carrot, the celery, 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.