Qreen Anne's Lace

 

 

 

Daucus carota, Queen Anne's Lace, is the ancestor of our grocery store carrots. If you taste the root, you can taste the carrot-ness of it. But the foliage is poison, or so they say. It is sometimes classified as an invasive noxious weed as it is said to overcrowd pastures. What I say to that is if the pastures were properly mowed, it would not become a problem in the first place, but I am not here to discuss pasture management.The seeds of Queen Anne's Lace have been used as a contraceptive for over 2000 years. It is a food stuff for swallowtail larvae, attracts predatory wasps, and has been shown to boost tomato production when grown near tomatoes. Likely this is a result of the association with predatory wasps. They lay their eggs on the tomato hornworms body and ultimately kill the hornworm. The eggs are those white things on tomato hornworm's body. Never kill a hornworm that has those white egg attachments.
Queen Anne's Lace was brought to this country by European settlers and has become so ubiquitous that many people think it is a native wildflower. It has also invaded Australia. I don't think of it as a weed though. I enjoy it's beauty and like to use it in floral arrangements, even thou the pollen tends to drop around it. to me this adds to the beauty, similar to a fallen petal under an arrangement.
Like a carnation , the flowers take up color added to the water it sits in. Try this with the kids. put a little food coloring into the water of a vase of Queen Anne's lace flowers and watch what happens.
The red dot that sometimes appears in the middle of the flower is a drop of queen Anne's blood when she pricked her finger making the lace. In actuality it attracts insects.
The dried umbels hold the seed. They contract, becoming concave and result in another common name for the plant: bird's nest.
A word of caution. Queen Anne's Lace is easily mistaken for Poison Hemlock. Click here to see.