Queen Anne’s lace

(Daucus carota ssp. carota)

Conservation Status
Queen Anne’s Lace
 
  IUCN Red List

not listed

     
  NatureServe

NNA - No Status Rank

SNA - No Status Rank

     
  Minnesota

not listed

     
           
Weed Status
   
 

Restricted Noxious Weed

Queen Anne’s lace is listed as an invasive terrestrial plant by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

     
           
Wetland Indicator Status
     
  Great Plains

UPL - Obligate upland

     
  Midwest

UPL - Obligate upland

     
  Northcentral & Northeast

UPL - Obligate upland

     
           
 
Description
 
 

Queen Anne’s lace is a 16 to 60 tall, erect, biennial forb that rises on a solitary stem from a large, deep, slender, branched taproot. The taproot is woody, not fleshy, and is usually brown. The plant has a carrot scent.

In the first year the plant appears as a rosette of basal leaves and closely resembles the typical garden carrot. In the second year it sends up a single flowering stem.

Basal leaves are on long stalks (petioles). The petiole is broad and flat at the base. The leaf blades are oblong to triangular egg-shaped in outline, up to 8 long, and up to 4 wide. The first leaf is divided into 3 sections (ternate). Subsequent leaves are 2 or 3 times pinnately divided. The ultimate divisions are pinnately lobed. The lobes are linear to lance-shaped, 1 16 to ½ long, and 1 64to 116 wide. The taper to a short, sharp point at the tip. The upper and lower surfaces are hairy. The margins may be toothed, lobed, or neither (entire).

The stem is erect, stout, sparingly branched, finely ridged, round in cross section, and hollow. It is green, rough to the touch, and sparsely to densely covered with stiff, white, spreading to downward pointing hairs. It is not spotted.

Stem leaves are alternate. Lower stem leaves are on short petioles. The petioles are broadened at the base. They surround and extend down (sheath) the stem. The upper leaf surface is hairless. The lower leaf surface is sparsely to moderately hairy, especially along the margins and veins. They are smaller but otherwise similar to basal leaves. The leaves become shorter stalked, smaller, and less divided as they ascend the stem. Upper stem leaves are about 2 long and stalkless or almost stalkless.

The inflorescence is a flat-topped, compound, umbrella-shaped cluster (umbel) at the end of the stem and each branch. It is on a 4 to 21½ long, moderately to densely hairy stalk (peduncle). The umbel is dense, round, and 2 to 5 in diameter. It is subtended by 4 to 15 modified leaves (bracts) that form a loose involucre. The bracts of the involucre are to 1½ long and are once or twice divided into linear segments (pinnatifid). They are green and hairless or sparsely hairy. The umbel has 20 or more branches (rays) arising from the center of the umbel. The rays are 13 16 to 3 long and spreading to ascending. The inner rays are shorter than the outer. At the end of each ray is a secondary umbel (umbellet).

Each umbellet is subtended by 5 to 13 bractlets (involucel). The bractlets of the involucel are green and linear. They have broad, thin, white margins, at least near the base. The umbellet has 5 to 20 individual flowers. The central flower is stalkless, the remaining flowers are on 1 32 to 516 long stalks (raylets).

The flowers are about wide. They have 5 petals and no sepals, or sepals that are reduced to minute triangular teeth. The petals are white, inversely egg-shaped, and notched at the tip into 2 lobes of unequal size. The tip of the petal is flexed inward. The outermost petals of the outermost flowers of the outer umbellets are sometimes enlarged. There is often a single dark purple flower at the center of the central umbel. The flowers are not aromatic.

As the fruit develops the rays and raylets contract producing an upright, egg-shaped fruiting head that resembles a bird’s nest. The fruit is dry, grayish-brown, to 3 16 long, oblong-eliptic to oblong egg-shaped, and flattened laterally. It contains 2 seeds and when ripe splits into 2 one-seeded segments. Each segment (mericarp) has 5 primary ribs and 4 secondary ribs between the primary ribs. The secondary ribs have minutely barbed bristles. Seeds are dispersed by clinging to the fur of passing animals or the clothing of passing hikers.

 
     
 

Height

 
 

16 to 60

 
     
 

Flower Color

 
 

White, often with a single dark purple flower in the center.

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
     
     
 
Habitat
 
 

Meadows, old fields, roadsides, and disturbed sites. Full sun to partial shade.

 
     
 
Ecology
 
 

Flowering

 
 

June to September

 
     
 

Pests and Diseases

 
 

 

 
     
 
Use
 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 22, 24, 28, 29, 30.

 
  10/5/2022      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native to North Africa, Asia, and Europe. Introduced and naturalized in North America.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Common

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
  Kingdom Plantae (green algae and land plants)  
  Subkingdom Viridiplantae (green plants)  
  Infrakingdom Streptophyta (land plants and green algae)  
  Superdivision Embryophyta (land plants)  
  Division Tracheophyta (vascular plants)  
  Subdivision Spermatophytina (seed plants)  
  Class Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)  
  Superorder Asteranae  
 

Order

Apiales (carrots, ivies, and allies)  
  Suborder Apiineae  
 

Family

Apiaceae (carrot)  
  Subfamily Apioideae  
  Tribe Scandiceae  
  Subtribe Daucinae  
 

Genus

Daucus  
  Subgenus Daucus  
  Species Daucus carota  
       
 

Subordinate Taxa

 
 

 

 
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Carota sativa

Caucalis carota

Caucalis daucus

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

bird’s nest

bird’s-nest

devil’s-plague

Queen Anne’s-lace

Queen Anne’s lace

queen’s-lace

salosi

wild carrot

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glossary

Bract

Modified leaf at the base of a flower stalk, flower cluster, or inflorescence.

 

Bractlet

A small, often secondary bract within an inflorescence; a bract that is borne on a petiole instead of subtending it; bracteole.

 

Involucel

A whorl of bractlets beneath a secondary flower cluster in a compound inflorescence.

 

Involucre

A whorl of bracts beneath or surrounding a flower or flower cluster.

 

Linear

Long, straight, and narrow, with more or less parallel sides, like a blade of grass.

 

Mericarp

The split, usually one-seeded portion of a dry, multi-seeded fruit.

 

Peduncle

In angiosperms, the stalk of a single flower or a flower cluster; in club mosses, the stalk of a strobilus or a group of strobili.

 

Pinnatifid

Deeply cut, more than half way to the midrib but not to the midrib, into lobes that are spaced out along the midrib; the lobes do not form separate leaflets.

 

Ray

In the Asteraceae (aster) family: a strap-shaped flower, or the strap-shaped portion of a flower. In the Apiaceae (carrot) and Euphorbiaceae (spurge) families: a branch of an umbel.

 

Raylet

A branch of an umbellet.

 

Sheath

The lower part of the leaf that surrounds the stem.

 

Ternate

Refers to leaves that are divided into three leaflets or sections.

 

Umbel

A flat-topped or convex, umbrella-shaped cluster of flowers or buds arising from more or less a single point.

 

Umbellet

A secondary umbel in a compound umbel.

 
 
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Alfredo Colon

 
    Queen Anne’s Lace      
           
    Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace  
           
    Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace  
 

Robert Briggs

 
 

Queen Anne's Lace pictures taken today in Pine Bend Bluffs SNA.

  Queen Anne’s Lace  
           
    Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace  
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
 

Plant

 
    Queen Anne’s Lace      
           
 

Inflorescence

 
    Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace  
           
    Queen Anne’s Lace      
           
 

Leaves

 
    Queen Anne’s Lace      

 

Camera

     
 
Slideshows
 
  Wild Carrot
Wez Smith
 
  Wild Carrot  
 
About

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota).

 
  Queen Annes Lace
DianesDigitals
 
  Queen Annes Lace  
 
About

Copyright DianesDigitals

 
  Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
Andree Reno Sanborn
 
  Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)  
  Daucus carota QUEEN ANNE'S LACE
Frank Mayfield
 
  Daucus carota QUEEN ANNE'S LACE  

 

slideshow

       
 
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Other Videos
 
  Wild carrot Daucus carota time lapse
Neil Bromhall
 
   
 
About

Published on Nov 21, 2013

Wild carrot, Daucus carota subsp carota flowers opening time lapse.

Filmed by Neil Bromhall www.rightplants4me.co.uk

This is a beautiful wildflower. The flowers are white, in many small, simple umbels, making a large, flat-topped compound umbel. In the middle of the umbel is a single red flower Fruits are 2-4mm, flattened, often with hooked bristles.

Bees and insects love this flower.

Music 'Moon Cloud' by Paul Mottram

   
  Wild Carrot (Daucus Carota) - 2012-07-02
W3stlander
 
   
 
About

Published on Jul 4, 2012

Daucus carota (common names include wild carrot, (UK) bird's nest, bishop's lace, and (US) Queen Anne's lace) is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae.

-----------------
De wilde peen (Daucus carota) is een plant uit de schermbloemenfamilie (Umbelliferae of Apiaceae).

   
  Daucus carota
wetvideocamera
 
   
 
About

Published on Jun 8, 2014

Wild Carrot , Queen Anne's Lace - a well established introduction fro Eurasia used in plantings as a groundcover but also a quite invasive biennial plant up to 120 cm tall.

   

 

Camcorder

 
 
Visitor Sightings
 
           
 

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  Alfredo Colon
8/15/2022

Location: Albany, NY

Queen Anne’s lace  
  Alfredo Colon
8/2/2022

Location: Albany, NY

Queen Anne’s lace  
  Alfredo Colon
9/3 to 9/5/2019

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Queen Anne’s lace  
  Robert Briggs
11/9/2016

Location: Pine Bend Bluffs SNA

Queen Anne's Lace pictures taken today in Pine Bend Bluffs SNA.

Queen Anne’s lace  
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Sightings
 
   

 

 

Binoculars


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