Heracleum L.

Biennial or perennial herbs, usually hairy and often rhizomatous, sometimes of great size. Lvs 1–3-pinnate or ternate, or simple and digitately lobed; segments usually broad. Umbels compound, pedunculate; bracts and bracteoles present or 0, entire. Petals white, greenish or pink, usually irregular; petals of inner fls entire and inflexed, those of outer fls often 2-lobed; calyx teeth minute. Fr. ellipsoid to globose, strongly flattened dorsally, not beaked, spineless, but sometimes hairy; commissure broad; ribs 5 per mericarp, the dorsal slender, the lateral with a thickened wing; lateral wings of opposing mericarps appressed; vittae broad, club-shaped, solitary in furrows and < fr.

[From: Webb et al. (1988) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 4.]