Xrthnty

Garden chervil
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Asterids
Order:	Apiales
Family:	Apiaceae
Genus:	Anthriscus
Species:	A. cerefolium
Binomial name
Anthriscus cerefolium (L.) Hoffm.

Chervil (/ˈtʃɜːrˌvɪl/; Anthriscus cerefolium), sometimes called French parsley or garden chervil (to distinguish it from similar plants also called chervil), is a delicate annual herb related to parsley. It is commonly used to season mild-flavoured dishes and is a constituent of the French herb mixture fines herbes.

Name

The name chervil is from Anglo-Norman, from Latin chaerephylla or choerephyllum, ultimately from Ancient Greek χαιρέφυλλον (chairephyllon), meaning "leaves of joy".^[1][2]

Biology

A member of the Apiaceae, chervil is native to the Caucasus but was spread by the Romans through most of Europe, where it is now naturalised.^[3]

The plants grow to 40–70 cm (16–28 in), with tripinnate leaves that may be curly. The small white flowers form small umbels, 2.5–5 cm (1–2 in) across. The fruit is about 1 cm long, oblong-ovoid with a slender, ridged beak.^[3]

Seed of chervil

Uses and impact

Culinary arts

Chervil garnishing a salad

Chervil is used, particularly in France, to season poultry, seafood, young spring vegetables (such as carrots), soups, and sauces. More delicate than parsley, it has a faint taste of liquorice or aniseed.^[4]

Chervil is one of the four traditional French fines herbes, along with tarragon, chives, and parsley, which are essential to French cooking.^[5] Unlike the more pungent, robust herbs such as thyme and rosemary, which can take prolonged cooking, the fines herbes are added at the last minute, to salads, omelettes, and soups.

Horticulture

According to some, slugs are attracted to chervil and the plant is sometimes used to bait them.^[6]

Health

Chervil has had various uses in folk medicine. It was claimed to be useful as a digestive aid, for lowering high blood pressure, and, infused with vinegar, for curing hiccups.^[7] Besides its digestive properties, it is used as a mild stimulant.^[4]

Chervil has also been implicated in "strimmer dermatitis", another name for phytophotodermatitis, due to spray from weed trimmers and similar forms of contact. Other plants in the family Apiaceae can have similar effects.^[8]

Cultivation

Transplanting chervil can be difficult, due to the long taproot.^[7] It prefers a cool and moist location; otherwise, it rapidly goes to seed (also known as bolting).^[7] It is usually grown as a cool-season crop, like lettuce, and should be planted in early spring and late fall or in a winter greenhouse. Regular harvesting of leaves also helps to prevent bolting.^[7] If plants bolt despite precautions, the plant can be periodically re-sown throughout the growing season, thus producing fresh plants as older plants bolt and go out of production.

Chervil grows to a height of 12 to 24 inches (300 to 610 mm), and a width of 6 to 12 inches (150 to 300 mm).^[7]

See also

• Dill


• Fines herbes


• Anthriscus_cerefolium


• Parsley


• Sweet cicely


• 
  Alcyonidium diaphanum, called "sea chervil"

References

Further reading

• 
  Howard, Michael (1987). Traditional Folk Remedies. Century. p. 118.