Short answers, pulled from the story.
The scientific name of parsley is Petroselinum crispum. This species is native to the Mediterranean region, specifically the Balkans and Sardinia, where it was first cultivated around the 3rd century BC.
Parsley was apparently first cultivated in Britain in 1548. Literary evidence suggests it was used in England during the Middle Ages as early as the Anglo-Saxon period, creating a discrepancy between documented cultivation and oral tradition.
The Parsley Massacre in October 1937 claimed the lives of an estimated 14,000 to 40,000 Haitian men, women, and children. Dominican Republic soldiers used the pronunciation of the Spanish word for parsley, perejil, to determine whether individuals were Dominican or Haitian.
Parsley seeds take four to six weeks to germinate due to the presence of furanocoumarins in the seed coat. This slow and difficult germination process is a biological characteristic of the plant.
Half a tablespoon of dried parsley contains about 6.0 micrograms of lycopene and 10.7 micrograms of alpha carotene. It also provides 82.9 micrograms of lutein plus zeaxanthin and 80.7 micrograms of beta carotene.