Services Plant Wiki Dump Trailer Rental Guides & Stories Contact Hablamos Español
← Back to Plant Wiki

Plant Story

By Gardens of Gold · 6 min read · Guides & Stories

The Story of Dill

Dill offers both needle-like leaves (dill weed) and seeds for pickles. Its native range is given as North Africa to Chad and Iran to the Arabian Peninsula (Kew), southern Asia (GRIN), and southern Russia, western Africa, and the Mediterranean (UC Santa Clara).

Flowering dill plants with yellow umbels in a garden row (wiki plant photo).
Flowering dill.

Anethum graveolens is related to parsley, celery, cumin, and fennel.

How it was found

Kew maps Anethum graveolens from North Africa to Chad, and from Iran to the Arabian Peninsula. Native list: Algeria, Chad, Cyprus, Gulf States, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia.

USDA GRIN lists the species as cultivated widely, adventive worldwide, and notes “probable origin s. Asia.” UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County: native to southern Russia, western Africa, and the Mediterranean.

How people used it

Kew lists food, and also that the species has environmental uses (no named environmental use on the taxon summary). UC Santa Clara: leaves used fresh or dried as an herb in dips, soups, salads, seafood, and pickles; can be grown for both leaves and seeds. UC Sonoma: offers both seeds and leaves, called dill weed when dried. UCCE Garden Notes: dill weed leaves used in soups, stews, meat dishes, pasta, and egg dishes; seeds or whole seed heads used for pickles. USDA GRIN: food-additive flavoring (herb; seed and oil and flowers used), and materials — essential oils — used in perfumery.

Kew also lists medicinal use.

Timeline

  1. Native range

    Three origin sentences

    UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County: dill is native to southern Russia, western Africa, and the Mediterranean. Kew gives North Africa to Chad and Iran to the Arabian Peninsula; GRIN gives a probable origin in southern Asia.

    UC Santa Clara; Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

  2. 1753

    Named in Species Plantarum

    Kew accepts Anethum graveolens L., first published in Sp. Pl.: 263 (1753). USDA GRIN: Sp. pl. 1:263. 1753. GRIN homotypic synonym Peucedanum graveolens (L.) Benth. ex C. B. Clarke; heterotypic synonym Anethum sowa Roxb. ex Fleming — not treated here as a separate crop species.

    Kew POWO; USDA GRIN

  3. Present

    A self-seeding annual

    UC Sonoma: harvest dill weed as soon as needle-like foliage appears; when seeds are set, the plant dies. Santa Clara: a self-seeding annual; new leaf production stops when plants bloom.

    UC Sonoma; UC Santa Clara

Cool to know

Umbellifer cousins

UC Santa Clara: part of the Umbelliferae family, which includes celery, cumin, fennel, and parsley.

UC Master Gardeners of Santa Clara County

Swallowtail larvae on the leaves

UC Sonoma: expect parsley worms, larvae of the swallowtail butterfly, feeding on a few leaves.

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County

Anethum sowa is a synonym here

GRIN lists Anethum sowa as a heterotypic synonym of A. graveolens — not treated here as a separate crop species.

USDA GRIN

Flowers that draw beneficial insects

UC Sonoma MG: dill plants attract beneficial insects to their flat-headed, yellow flowers.

UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County — Dill

California on Kew’s introduced list

Kew POWO lists California among Introduced into (no arrival year).

Kew POWO

Growing notes for this plant live on the Plant Wiki.

Want dill in a San Diego pot? See the easy-herbs guide for keeping culinary dill going here. Get a quote or write yourgardenofgold@gmail.com.

Get a Quote Ask About This Plant