Specialty culinary herb. Young leaves taste like celery with a hint of anise, and are used in spring tonic salads and with potato, rice, soups, and poultry dishes. Roots and young stems are also edible. Young stems can be cut, peeled, and used in salads. Stems are smooth, hollow, and thick. Attracts Beneficial Insects: If allowed to flower, provides pollen and nectar for beneficial insects such as bees, hoverflies, lacewing larvae, lady beetles, parasitic wasps, and tachinid flies. Perennial.