Daucus carota L.

Queen Anne's Lace; Wild Carrot

Herb

Biennial

Vascular

Queen Anne's Lace is an introduced herbaceous biennial in the Carrot family (Apiaceae). It is native to Europe and southwest Asia. In Alabama it can be found nearly state wide. Queen Anne's Lace grows on roadsides, along railroad tracks, in pastures, and in disturbed areas. It is a biennial with a taproot. During the first year of growth it consists of a basal rosette of leaves. Upright stems and flowers are produced during the second year. The stem is upright, 3-5 feet in height, green in color, pubescent, and branched slightly to freely. Leaves are alternate, petiolate, ovate-lanceolate in outline, and bipinnate-pinnatifid. The segments of the leaf are lanceolate in outline and slightly pubescent below. The rachis is slightly V-shaped. The plant has a carrot odor when damaged. Flowers are produced in terminal compound umbels. Each compound umbel has 20-30 smaller umbels each with 15-60 flowers. Each flower has 5 white petals. The compound umbel is subtended by involucral bracts divided into linear segments. The flower in the center of the compound umbel is reddish in color. The fruit is an ovoid prickly schizocarp consisting of two joined segments called mericarps. Queen Anne's Lace is a larval food plant for the Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes). The common carrot was domesticated from Queen Anne's Lace. The common name comes from the lace-like appearance of the flowering umbels. The single red flower in the center is said to represent a drop of blood where Queen Anne pricked her finger with a needle. --A. Diamond

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Not Native

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