Alternate name: Wild Carrot

Family: Apiaceae, Carrot view all from this family

Description Introduced. A few large, flat-topped lacy umbels with tiny white flowers, hairy on top, sometimes nearly smooth, with one dark reddish-brown, purple or pink floret usually at center of umbel; lacy-leafed stem.
Flowers: compound umbels 3-6" (7.5-15 cm) wide; the central flower commonly purple, or pink (sometimes all flowers pink), with stiff 3-forked, leaf-like bracts below. Branches of older umbels curl inward, resembling bird's nests.
Leaves: lacy blades 2-8" (5-20 cm) long, repeatedly pinnately divided into narrow segments.
Fruit: oval, with minute bristles along every other rib.
Height: 1-4' (30-120 cm).

Warning The leaves, especially when wet, may cause skin irritation in some individuals.

Flower May-October.

Habitat Roadsides, dry fields, and old lots.

Range Old World native; introduced and naturalized throughout most of North America, except the far north.

Discussion An attractive, hairy biennial, Queen Anne's Lace is considered a troublesome weed and is classified as a noxious pest in some areas. It is so prevalent in the East that it is often thought of as a native wildflower rather than an alien introduction. It was the ancestor of the garden carrot, and its long, first-year taproot can be cooked and eaten. The plant has been reproduced from one embryonic cell in tissue culture and has actually flowered, with even the usual central red floret present. The flowering heads served 18th-century English courtiers as "living lace," hence the common name.