A morphological, anatomical and taxonomic study of Umbelliferae in Egypt

The family Umbelliferae (Apiaceae) is one of the most famous botanical families. The medicinal and aromatic species of this family have great economic export value for Egypt. 54 Egyptian Umbelliferous species were checked and their taxonomic characters (290 characters) were determined including: morphological, anatomical characters as well as their chromosome numbers in addition to their content from the flavonoids. Delta program is used to generate simplified taxonomic keys which enable the researchers and many other who interested on the identification of these species. This revision is based on the herbarium specimens kept in the herbaria of both Cairo and Reading Universities as well as specimens gathered from field. These species are sub-classified into 2 subfamilies (Saniculoideae and Apioideae) including 30 genera. Six conventional keys were elaborated for the identification of unknown Umbelliferae specimen. It is easy for expert and non expert in the taxonomy to use it. The present study recommended the starting a national wide program for the application of DELTA program to include another families and genera.