Herb fennel, or sweet fennel, is grown for its fine leaves and seeds. It is grown as an annual for food but usually survives over winter and produces flowers and seeds the following year. Fennel flowers are beloved by insects such as hoverflies, potter wasps, bees and lacewings. An ancient crop, fennel is thought to have been consumed 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce
