Dill and fennel: what is the difference between plants, what are their characteristics?

These plants are often confused, because the leaves have almost the same shape. Yes, and in the pharmacy selling fennel seeds under the name of pharmacy dill. The people called him Voloshsky dill. Meanwhile, these are different plants, although they are close relatives, and are even capable of mixing with each other. Consider them separately, and then we will understand how they differ.

How dill looks, everyone knows. Even if you have never lived in a village and you do not have your own vegetable garden, such a plant can be found on store shelves even in winter.

This is a fairly tall annual herb that grows from 40 to 150 cm in height. The root is thin, tap. The stem is usually single, although there are bush varieties in which up to a dozen stems depart from one root. At the base of the stem is a rosette of long pinnately dissected leaves. The leaves are located and the entire height of the stem, and the higher, the smaller they are.

The very top of the stem is decorated with inflorescence in the form of a double umbrella. First, 20 to 50 rays depart from the stem, which end with a reduced copy of the first umbrella. The flowers are small, yellow. It blooms in June - July. In August, seeds ripen in the form of flat elliptic seeds of a length of 3-5 mm and a width of 2-3 mm.

Dill leaves contain 2.5% protein, 0.5% fat and 6.3% carbohydrates. Their caloric content is low - 40 kcal / 100 g. The fiber content is 2.8%, which is 14% of the daily requirement (100 g of dill leaves).

They are also rich in vitamins, especially vitamin C (100 mg or 111% of the daily requirement of 100 g) and carotene (90% of the daily value of 100g). Folic acid in them is relatively small - 6.8% of the daily requirement. Vitamin E (11.3% of the need), vitamin B6 (7.5% of the norm), PP (7%) and B2 (5.6%) are also present.

Of the mineral substances, we note calcium (22% of the norm in 100 g), magnesium (17.5%), potassium (13.4%), phosphorus (11.6%) and iron (8.9%), and of trace elements - manganese (63.2%), copper (14.6%) and zinc (7.6%). The content of potassium, calcium and phosphorus in the seeds is 3-4 times higher than in the leaves.

Fresh leaves of dill appear on our spring table almost the first, in April, when the body is in dire need of vitamins. They are added to salads, soups, sauces and side dishes, they are part of many seasonings. Mashed potatoes with dill are much richer in taste. And salted cucumbers without him are nonsense. In marinated vegetables and mushrooms certainly add inflorescences of dill with unripe seeds.

The healing properties of dill have been known since ancient Egypt. They knew about them in Persia and India. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates praised him highly, and in the Middle Ages Avicenna devoted a lot of space to him in his monumental work “The Canon of Medicine”. It was in the Middle Ages that dill spread widely throughout Europe. Poets praised his scent in verse. Dill attributed property to drive away evil spirits.

They treated not only diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, but also kidneys, migraine, anemia, insomnia, eye diseases.

This popular experience is confirmed by modern science, which confirmed that dill has the following properties:

• antispasmodic;
• anti-inflammatory;
• choleretic;
• diuretic;
• vasodilator;
• expectorant;
• antiseptic.

Dill is also used in cosmetics to get rid of acne, whitening freckles.

Dill helps women get rid of cycle failures, but pregnant women need to be careful with it, because dill oil tones the uterus and, if it is consumed excessively, can cause miscarriage.

Dill for men can help with problems with potency. No wonder in ancient Greece, he was considered an aphrodisiac and pinned to clothes to enhance attraction. Dill dilates blood vessels, including those in the cavernous body, therefore, the rumor about this property was completely grounded. In addition, it relieves nervous excitement and eliminates self-doubt.

It perfectly whitens teeth and eliminates the smell from the mouth, so chewing dill sprigs will be useful on a date.

It would seem that there is nothing simpler - scattered seeds on the ground in early spring, slightly loosened the soil and in a month tear off the fragrant greens. Well, it can be so, but it is better to approach this case according to all the rules of agronomic science. Then the harvest will be higher, and the greens are juicier, and there will be much more vitamins in it.

The bed should be prepared in the autumn: dig it to a depth of 20 cm and bring in the compost. As soon as the snow melts, you can start planting. Dill seeds are small and planted them shallowly. They slowly germinate due to the abundance of essential oils that prevent water absorption and swelling.

The first shoots will appear in 2-3 weeks. You can speed up this process, pre-soaking the seeds for 3 days in warm water (50 degrees). Some gardeners even scald them with boiling water. If you planted soaked seeds, be sure to cover the garden bed with foil. And in the case of sowing dry seeds it is useful. Shoots appear much earlier.

Seeds can be sown several times with an interval of two weeks. Then all summer you will be guaranteed fresh greens. Dill is planted before winter, just before the snow cover is set, so that the seeds do not have time to germinate.

Caring for dill is simple - except watering on time. Fertilizer does not require enough to make compost before planting. But if the leaves begin to turn yellow early, then pour a weak solution of urea (1 tsp on a bucket of water) or a mullein (1: 10). It is useful to know that dill varieties are early ripening, mid ripening and late ripening.

The first will please you with fragrant greens much earlier, but they will bloom faster, their productivity is therefore lower. These include such varieties as "Gribovsky" and "Umbrella". Sow them under the film in early spring.

Mid-season varieties ("Patterns", "Lesnogorodsky", "Borey", "Umbrella", "Richelieu", "Kibray") give more leaves, but the greens are ready for use a week later. They are useful for salted cucumbers, and in salads are very tasty.

Late varieties (“Buyan”, “Salute”, “Alligator”, “Amazon”) give the biggest harvest, but it will have to wait 2-2.5 months.

Unlike dill, fennel is much less likely to be found in vegetable gardens, especially in the middle lane. And this is not surprising. Fennel is much more thermophilic, because it is a native of the south. The area of ​​its growth in the wild does not extend beyond the North Caucasus.

It is a high biennial or perennial herb growing up to 1.8-2 m. The root is thickened, fleshy, spindly. Stem branched, rounded, grooved, with a bluish-blue patina. At the base of the stem, like dill, is a basal rosette of long leaves. In vegetable varieties, leaf stalks grow together into a rounded kochanchik, shaped like an onion. Smaller leaves are also located along the entire height of the stem.

The very top of the stem is decorated with several inflorescences in the form of a double umbrella, only the number of rays is less than dill, not more than 20, and often only 3, and the inflorescences themselves are smaller. It blooms from July to September. Flowers are the same as that of dill. The fruits are a two-seed length up to 1 cm, easily crumbling into two lobes. They ripen not at the same time, from the beginning of September to October.

The chemical composition of dill and fennel are very close. Fennel bulb contains 1.24% protein, 0.2% fat and 7.3% carbohydrates. Calories - 31 kcal / 100 gThe fiber content is 3.1%, which is 15.5% of the daily requirement (per 100 g).

Vitamin C in fennel contains 12 mg, which is 13.3% of the daily requirement, carotene - 12.8% of the daily value of 100g, folic acid is quite a bit (1.2% of the daily requirement).

The calcium in the bulb is much less than in the leaves of dill (5.2% of the norm in 100 g), as well as magnesium (5.4%), potassium (5.4%), phosphorus (9.7%), iron (0.9%), manganese (10.2%), copper (10.0%) and zinc (1.7%). In green leaves their content is more, and in fruits even more than in leaves.

Fennel onion can be added to soups and salads, you can fry or stew, combine with other vegetables to make a fragrant stew, add to sauces, and marinate. It is especially combined with beef or chicken, giving the dishes an aroma that will be remembered for a long time. Greens can be used instead of dill, only the smell of dishes will be completely different, like anise or tarragon. Fruits are added to pastries and pastries.

Fennel was known by the ancient Egyptians, from whom the ancient Greeks also learned about him, who attributed to him miraculous and magical properties.

It has the same medicinal properties as dill, but it acts noticeably stronger. Due to the anethol in the composition of the essential oil, it has a much more pronounced expectorant and lactogonic effect, so it is better to use it when coughing and to increase milk in nursing mothers. For pregnant women, it is much less dangerous than dill, so they often use it for problems with the intestines.

Fennel fruits can be purchased at the pharmacy, sometimes under your real name, sometimes under the pseudonym "pharmacy fennel fruits."

Fennel is divided into two varieties: ordinary, grown for the sake of leaves, and vegetable, which forms an onion. Growing the first one is not particularly different from growing dill, except for planting it later, after the weather is warm and the danger of frost has passed.

But to grow vegetable fennel is much more difficult. Seeds are sown closer to the end of June, so that the plant does not stretch. In the middle lane you need to grow fennel through the seedlings in order to create a kochanchik. Fennel needs a sunny plot with fertile, fertilized with humus soil, frequent watering and a couple of top dressings for the season. Best of all, mullein or bird droppings, diluted 1:20. Vegetable varieties must be spud two or three times per season.

Cots are removed when they reach a diameter of 8-10 cm. They are cut off at the very surface of the earth, leaves are removed, leaving only petioles 10 cm long. They are kept in the basement buried in sand. In the refrigerator, they are stored no more than a week.

The leaves of dill and fennel smell differently: dill has a spicy aroma, while fennel has a sweet, aniseed smell. Fennel fruits are elongated, split into halves, and dill is flat, oval, whole. Dill does not form a cob. Dill leaves are green, and fennel has a noticeable bluish tint.

The medicinal properties of dill and fennel are similar, but in fennel they are much more pronounced, especially lactogonic and expectorant. The difference between these plants is not very significant.

On the beneficial properties of fennel, see below.