category: food/groceries: vegetables: stem vegetables

Leaf celery, Cutting celery, bot.: Apium graveolens var. secalinum, de.: Schnittsellerie, Würzsellerie, fr.: célery à couper

Leaf or cutting celery is a vegetable, belonging to the group of leaf vegetables. Together with root and stalk celery it belongs to the parsley family (bot.: Apiaceae, Umbelliferae).

Like stalk celery, cutting celery is a celery variation that grows little or no root, and is thus similar to the wild form. Its wide, pinnate leaf remind of Italian flat-leaf parsley. They taste intensely of celery though and are used as an aromatic vegetable. Celery in all its forms is supposed to have aphrodisiac effects. This speculation has been around since antiquity. It has been neither proven nor refuted but fact is that the essential oils and numerous nutrients in celery are beneficial to health.

Note: Cutting celery is well suited for drying. Its special aroma may be preserved for months.