The leaves of Queen Anne’s lace look just like those on the carrot bunches that you find in the grocery store, or perhaps your vegetable garden if you tend one. That’s because Queen Anne’s lace is the wild form of our cultivated carrot (which is Daucus carota subspecies sativa). Pull out a Queen Anne’s lace plant to inspect the root. It is white and fibrous and looks like a very gnarly carrot. Scratch the surface of the root and smell it – you’ll notice that it has a delightful carrot smell. The root is edible – but much tougher and more fibrous than our domesticated carrot roots.
Queen Anne’s lace is an exotic species in our region and highly abundant as a weed in lawns, meadows, roadsides and so on.
A specimen of Queen Anne’s lace, note the finely divided leaves. This specimen is in flower, as the photo was taken near the end of June. (Some thimbleberry leaves, Rubus parviflorus, are visible in the background. Photo credit: Lynda StevensNote the finely dissected (divided) leaf of Queen Anne’s lace. Compare these to carrot leaves if you can find the bunched carrots (with the leaves still on) in the grocery store. Photo credit: Lynda StevensClose-up of the finely dissected (divided) leaf of Queen Anne’s lace. Photo credit: Lynda StevensBoth leaves and stems of Queen Anne’s lace are hairy. Photo credit: Lynda StevensThe inflorescence of Queen Anne’s lace is composed of many small white flowers. Oftentimes, the central-most flower in the inflorescense is dark purple, almost black, as seen in this photograph. Photo credit: Lynda StevensClose-up of individual Queen Anne’s lace flowers within the inflorescence. Contrast this with yarrow (Achillea millefolium), where each white “flower” within the larger inflorescence is actually a very small inflorescence itself (made up of several ray flowers and several disc flowers). In the case of Queen Anne’s lace, each small white flower is an individual flower with petals, stamens (male) and carpel (female). Photo credit: Lynda StevensAs the seeds* develop, the inflorescence begin curving in on itself, giving rise to a bird’s nest look. Photo credit: Lynda Stevens *Technically, what looks like seeds are ‘dry fruits’ with a single seed inside – we’ll discuss more about fruit morphology and fruit types in lecture.Further along in fruit development, the outside of the fruits develop stiff barbed prickles – when the fruits are ripe, they will stick to your pants and socks as you walk past. Photo credit: Andreas Rockstein via FlickrBy late fall, most of the vegetative parts of the plant have withered, but the characteristic seed (fruit) heads remain – waiting for a passing animal or person to disperse them and the seed inside to a new location. Photo credit: Andreas Rockstein via FlickrRoot of Queen Anne’s lace. It’s not orange like our modern carrot varieties (the original domesticated carrot roots were also white), but it has a distinctive unmistakeable carrot-y smell. Dig some out and try for yourself. Photo credit: Forest & Kim Starr via Flickr
A note on the Family Apiaceae: This family have lots of aromatic plants in it that people use for culinary purposes. Some examples are: parsnip (Pastinaca sativa), celery (Apium graveolens), parsley (Petroselinum crispum), cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) and dill (Anethum graveolens).
