Kids Research Express

Celery, common name for a biennial herb of the parsley family, a native of Europe but now widely grown throughout the world. The stalks, about 30 to 76 cm (about 12 to 30 in) high in cultivated varieties, are eaten, raw or cooked, as a vegetable or salad. When allowed to grow naturally, the stalks are greenish in color and slightly bitter in taste. They are often blanched during the last stages of their growth by preventing access of sunlight except to the leaves; this process removes the color and the bitter taste, but also some of the vitamins. If allowed to grow a second year, celery sends up flower stalks about 61 to 91 cm (about 24 to 36 in) tall with small white flowers in umbels. The dried fruit of celery is used as a condiment alone under the name of celery seed or ground and mixed with salt under the name of celery salt. Celery seed is also used in pharmacy as a sedative or to disguise the flavor of other drugs. Celery is subject to attack by several blights, by the tar...

Celery, biennial plant (Apium graveolens) of the family Umbelliferae (parsley family), of wide distribution in the wild state throughout the north temperate Old World and much cultivated also in America. It was first cultivated as a medicinal, then (during the Middle Ages) as a flavoring, and finally as a food, chiefly for soups and salads. The seeds are still used for seasoning. Celeriac is a variety cultivated chiefly in N Europe for the large edible turniplike root. Celery is classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Umbellales, family Umbelliferae.