Seeds: parsley or celery?

[Ann123]

Last summer my mom saved some seeds and when they were dry she didn't remember if they were flat parsley seeds or celery seeds.
She has 2 batches. Maybe they are both parsley or both celery or one is celery and the other one parsley. yes, not easy.
Is it possible to identify them? I tasted them. They have a carrot taste and maybe that the darker batch has some celery taste.

On the first pic the darker batch is upper, the one with clearer lines down.
Second pic: darker
Third pic: clearer lines

[Nan_PA_6b]

How large are those seeds? The celery seed I buy in the store is tiny (maybe 1/2 mm).

[clkeiper]

chew some of them. that will tell you.

[GrowingCoastal]

Looks like parsley to me.

[oakley]

Probably parsley. Mine has a bit of a curl like that. All my celery
varieties are like dust in comparison.

[kath]

Originally Posted by oakley

Probably parsley. Mine has a bit of a curl like that. All my celery
varieties are like dust in comparison.

Agree!

[clkeiper]

if they don't taste like celery then I agree... parsley. celery seed tastes like celery.

[Koala Doug]

In the first picture, the top bag of seeds are parsley. The bottom bag appears to be celery.

[PhilaGardener]

One way to find out for sure . . .

[bower]

Your top bag is parsely for sure. In the bottom bag, first pic, you have some tiny seeds around the top, those are celery. I've grown and saved both and, be assured, the big ones are parsely wtihout doubt. Celery seeds are so tiny, you cannot count what you plant. A pinch can give you hundreds of plants.

[bower]

Should also mention that parsely can cross with celery. They call it "par-cel". I've never had them cross or tasted it, so be sure and let us know if you get an exotic hybrid! And what it tastes like.

[Ann123]

Originally Posted by bower

Should also mention that parsely can cross with celery. They call it "par-cel". I've never had them cross or tasted it, so be sure and let us know if you get an exotic hybrid! And what it tastes like.

I don't know if celery can cross with parsley. They have a very different Latin name.
I found this: https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/687163/#b
Seems like par-cel is what we call 'cutting celery' here, if I understand this thread right. That is a celery variety that produces more leaves and less stem.

[bower]

Originally Posted by Ann123

I don't know if celery can cross with parsley. They have a very different Latin name.
I found this: https://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/687163/#b
Seems like par-cel is what we call 'cutting celery' here, if I understand this thread right. That is a celery variety that produces more leaves and less stem.

Thanks for questioning - I don't remember where I read it originally, it was a few years ago when I was saving celery seed. I just went looking and I found this reference (not the same one I saw before, which cautioned not to plant them near one another!) Apparently it is possible to create interspecies hybrids between parsley and celery, but looks like the chances of an accidental cross in an open pollination scenario are very small or negligible - much less of a worry than I was led to believe.

http://www.plantsciences.ucdavis.edu...ery/Celery.htm

"For intergeneric crosses there are at least two independent reports on hybridization between parsley Petroselinum crispum and celery. Madjarova and Bubarova (1978) used three cultivars of celery and two of parsley. The parsley ‘Lister’ x celery ‘Pioneer’ cross resulted in a new parsley cultivar known as ‘Festival 68’. They also reported new forms of leaf celery from these crosses, characterized by higher vitamin C, carotene, essential oil and amino acid content, and an improved celeriac line.
The second report, by Honma and Lacy (1980) had the objective of transferring late blight resistance from parsley to celery. However, the level of resistance in the hybrid derivatives was weak. This may have occurred because parsley is susceptible to a different species of the pathogen, Septoria petroselini. For the crossing experiment, they used green stem color from parsley as marker for hybrid detection, which is dominant over yellow stems present in the celery parent. ‘Golden Spartan’ a yellow celery variety, was allowed to outcross with parsley. Three green seedlings were found among 1000 yellow seedlings germinating from the open pollinated seed collected from the celery parent. Later attempts to repeat these experiments have failed."

[Ann123]

Thank you all. Probably they are all parsley. I'll buy some celery to be able to compare. I don't remember what celery seeds look like.

[GrowingCoastal]

"hybrids between parsley and celery, but looks like the chances of an accidental cross in an open pollination scenario are very small or negligible"

I've grown them near each other for years and have not found a cross yet.