Oenanthe javanica Oenanthe javanica Oenanthe javanica, commonly Java waterdropwort, Chinese celery, Indian pennywort, Japanese parsley, water celery and water dropwort, is a plant of the water dropwort genus originating from East Asia. (Chinese celery is also the name given to "Apium graveolens" var. "secalinum"). It has a widespread native distribution in temperate Asia and tropical Asia, and is also native to Queensland, Australia. This plant should not be confused with the plants of the genus "Cryptotaenia", sometimes called "Japanese wild parsley" ("mitsuba" in Japanese). "O. javanica" is a perennial herb that grows to about 1 m in height, with fibrous roots that
Celery medicinal herbs and vegetables the Frankish emperor desired to see grown. At some later point in medieval Europe celery displaced alexanders. Celery's late arrival in the English kitchen is an end-product of the long tradition of seed selection needed to reduce the sap's bitterness and increase its sugars. By 1699, John Evelyn could recommend it in his "Acetaria. A Discourse of Sallets": "Sellery, apium Italicum, (and of the Petroseline Family) was formerly a stranger with us (nor very long since in Italy) is an hot and more generous sort of Macedonian Persley or Smallage... and for its high and grateful