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FENNEL
Foeniculum vulgare Mill., family Umbelliferae

The condiment plant, fennel, also known as Florence fennel, finocchio, and saunf, is produced in a limited way in the United States for its seeds as well as its foliage. It is grown extensively in India.

Plant:

Fennel may be an annual, biennial, or perennial, depending upon the way it is managed (fig. 110). Cool weather is required for its successful growth. Its foliage is dense and threadlike. The plants are cultivated somewhat like carrots (Knott 1 949).

[gfx] FIGURE 110. - Fennel plant, showing the flower umbels typical of the Umbelliferae family.

Inflorescence:

There are two kinds of flowers on this umbelliferous plant. The first of the tiny yellow flowers to bloom on an umbel are hermaphrodite with a few isolated staminate ones. These hermaphrodite flowers are completely protandrous. After the five stamens of a blossom dehisce and their pollen drops off, the stigma becomes receptive and continues to be receptive for 2 more days; however, because its own pollen is gone, the pollen must come from other plants. Later-maturing umbels may produce pollen that drops in masses to receptive stigmas below (Kerner 1897*, p. 325; Purseglove 1968*).

Both nectar and pollen are produced in the florets, which are intensely visited by bees (Youngken 1956).

Pollination Requirements:

Youngken (1950, 1956) caged flowering branches and compared seed production with that of open-pollinated branches, and showed that few or no seeds set on the caged branches, but seed set well on the bee-visited ones.

Pollinators:

Bees are the primary pollinators of fennel. Narayana et al. (1960) found that Apis florea constituted 81 percent of the visitors to fennel in India, and they recommended that cultivars more attractive to bees be developed. Youngken (1950, 1956) found that honey bees (A. mellifera) were the primary pollinators in Washington State.

Pollination Recommendations and Practices:

The keeping of colonies of honey bees around or in fennel fields was recommended by Narayana et al. (1960). Youngken (1956) recommended that more bees be kept in the drug plots or plantings for ideal pollination.

LITERATURE CITED:

KNOTT, J. E.
1949. VEGETABLE GROWING. 314 pp. Lea and Febiger, Philadelphia.

NARAYANAN E. S., SHARMA, P. L., and PHADKE, K. G.
1960. STUDIES ON REQUIREMENTS OF VARIOUS CROPS FOR INSECT POLLINATORS. 1. INSECT POLLINATORS OF SAUNF (FOENICULUM VULGARE) WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO THE HONEY BEES AT PUSA (BIHAR). Indian Bee Jour. 22(1/3): 7 - 11.

YOUNGKEN, H. W., JR.
1950. DRUG PLANTS GARDENS AND APICULTURE. In lowa State Apiarist Rpt., 1949, pp. 115-122.

______ 1956. THE VALUE OF MEDICINAL PLANTS TO BEEKEEPING. Gleanings Bee Cult. 84(1): 16 - 18.

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