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 whether these remains represent wild or cultivated forms." Only by classical times is it certain that celery was cultivated. M. Fragiska mentions an archeological find of celery dating to the 9th century BC, at Kastanas; however, the literary evidence for ancient Greece is far more abundant. In Homer's "Iliad", the horses of the Myrmidons graze on wild celery that grows in the marshes of Troy, and in "Odyssey", there is mention of the meadows of violet and wild celery surrounding the cave of Calypso. In the "Capitulary" of Charlemagne, compiled ca. 800, "apium" appears, as does "olisatum", or alexanders, among