An Indexed Bibliography. The Scientific Literature on Selected Herbs, and Aromatic and Medicinal Plants of the Temperate Zone. Caraway, Carum carvi L., is a slender annual or biennial herb native to Asia Minor and Europe and naturalized in North America. The plant, reaching a height of approximately one meter, has long been prized as a flavoring agent or condiment.
Caraway seeds are actually the mericarps of ripe fruit borne in compound umbels.
Principal production areas are located in Egypt, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Turkey, the USSR, the United States, and Morocco. The plant is sensitive to frost, plant competition, and mechanical injury. Since maturity requires about 15 months, the biennial caraway is usually intercropped with vegetables that are harvested the first year. In the Netherlands, caraway is typically seeded at the end of March and blossoms during the following year, in May. For the annual variety grown in the United States, planting is done in early spring, and the plants mature in late summer.