Big perennials or biennials (flowering in the second year), which like open spots and damp fields of Europe, through Asia to California. Good as a back of the border plant in a garden setting. Hundreds of small flowers are produced in in each umbel, giving rise to it's old family name Umbelliferae (now superceded by Apiaceae). Foliage of some types are red to purple.
As with all umbellifers, the heads of numerous tiny flowers provide a huge resource of nectar and pollen for a wide range of insects from tiny pollen-beetles to large hoverflies. The seeds and foliage are eaten by the larvae of several moths and leaf-mining flies. A. sylvestris is native in wetlands and damp areas; A. archangelica is of increasingly frequent appearance alongside watercourses and may exclude native plants - care should be taken to avoid its spread outside gardens.