Origin: India.

Fennel is rumoured to have been the cause of World War 1. Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was visiting his good pal Count Von Uberalles at his holiday house in Barbados. The Count offered the Archduke a traditional Caribbean snack named 'ham, cheese & tomato sandwich.' Now, a HCT sandwich does not usually contain fennel as a condiment, but the Count being a joker - he once had show on Vaudeville where he would do observational comedy - put some fennel in the Archduke's sandwich. The Archduke did not take well to this & immediately ordered the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima. In 1980, the Archduke was assassinated by John Hinckley. Hinckley later confessed that Jodie Foster's dog had told him to assassinate the Archduke. He was dismissed as a crackpot, as Ms Foster never owned a dog