English: Cicely; Sweet cicely: Myrrh; Garden myrrh; Sweet chervil.
Name Myrrhis derives from the Greek word myrrhis, an aromatic oil from Asia; odorata in Latin means scented.
Dutch: Roomse kervel.
Genus: 1 species.
Botany: Myrrhis odorata is an unresolved name.
Region: southern and central Europe, Pyrenees to the Caucasus; introduced elsewhere.
Habitat: cultivated areas, woodland margins, roadside verges, river banks, grassland; mountains.
Culture: Myrrha is the daughter of Theias, the King of Assyria; she deceives him as if she is a new concubine, seduces him and gets pregnant; Theias discovers the deceit, is enraged, chases his daughter with a sword; Myrrha prays to the Gods, who turn her into a myrrh tree; Adonis eventually sprung from the tears from this tree; in Ovid’s version Myrrha’s father is Cinyras, king of Cyprus; Dante sees Myrrha’s shadow suffering from rabies for her deception; Myrrha is Smyrna; Myrrha is a genus of ladybird beetle.
Content: anethole.
DD: Commiphora myrrha.
Use: leaves, raw or cooked; roots and seeds are edible; medicinal herb; flavour akvavit.

BotanyHerb; perennial; tall, to 2 m; softly hairy; smells strongly of aniseed when crushed.
Leaves: fern-like; 2 to 4-pinnate, finely divided, feathery; up to 50 cm long; with whitish patches near the rachis.
Inflorescence: large umbels.
Flowers: creamy-white; about 2 to 4 mm across; flowering from May to June.
Fruits: slender; dark brown, 15 to 25 mm long, 3 to 4 mm broad.