Celery

Celery was originally a biennial that grew in marshland areas and had a pungent, medicinal flavor. It was well known in the Middle Ages as a medicinal plant, but it wasn't used as food until much later. Due to its unpleasant taste, it was not used as a vegetable until the Italians and French developed a sweeter tasting, thicker stalked variety in the 1500s.

Gardeners in Italy, France, and England were heavily involved in improving the flavor and growth of celery during the late 17^th and early 18^th centuries, and European colonists brought it with them to America in the early 1800s.