Queen Anne's Lace
Daucus carota
Family Umbelliferae

Characteristics:
* Flowers white, in flat clusters that form a lace-like pattern, 3-6". Individual flowers often show a tiny, deep purple floret at the center.
* Bracts stiff, 3-forked, located beneath the main flower cluster.
* Leaves finely divided and subdivided.
* Height: 2-3'.

Natural History:
* Flowers May - October.
* Habitat: Roadsides, meadows, dry waste areas.
* Range: Throughout the United States.
* Introduced from Europe.

Connections!
* After flowering, clusters of Queen Anne's lace curl up into nest-like shapes and are picturesque additions to dried flower arrangements.

* English botanist Geoffrey Grigson suggests that the name of the plant comes not from a queen of England but from Saint Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary and the patron saint of lacemakers.

* Also called Wild Carrot, the plant is the ancestor of our cultivated carrot. Its first-year roots can be eaten in a carrotlike manner.

* "...the root is edible, and possesses more aroma than any of our indigenous plants. It is used in spasmodic vomiting, flatulent colics, and nervous headaches."
-Dr. Francis Peyre Porcher, in "Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests," 1863