Queen Anne’s lace

(Daucus carota ssp. carota)

Conservation Status

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNA - Not applicable

SNA - Not applicable

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

 
Queen Anne’s Lace
 
 
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 1 3 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.

5/18/2025    
     

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) / Angiospermae (flowering plants)

Class

Magnoliopsida (flowering plants)

Superorder

Asteranae

Order

Apiales (carrots, ivies, and allies)

Suborder

Apiineae

Family

Apiaceae (carrot)

Subfamily

Apioideae

Tribe

Scandiceae (chervils, carrots, hedgeparsleys and allies)

Subtribe

Daucinae

Genus

Daucus (carrots)

Subgenus

Daucus

Species

Daucus carota (Queen Anne’s lace)

   

Subordinate Taxa

 

   

Synonyms

Carota sylvestris

Caucalis carnosa

Caucalis carota

Caucalis daucus

Daucus abyssinicus

Daucus agrestis

Daucus alatus

Daucus allionii

Daucus australis

Daucus bactrianus

Daucus blanchei

Daucus brevicaulis

Daucus carota ssp. dentatus

Daucus carota ssp. hispidus

Daucus carota ssp. sylvestris

Daucus carota var. abyssinicus

Daucus carota var. acaulis

Daucus carota var. agrestis

Daucus carota var. alba

Daucus carota var. atrorubens

Daucus carota var. aurantia

Daucus carota var. brachycentrus

Daucus carota var. carnosus

Daucus carota var. excelsus

Daucus carota var. exiguus

Daucus carota var. foliosus

Daucus carota var. glaber

Daucus carota var. glaber

Daucus carota var. hispidus

Daucus carota var. nanus

Daucus carota var. pseudocarota

Daucus carota var. sylvestris

Daucus carota var. timbalianus

Daucus carota var. valentinus

Daucus carota var. violaceus

Daucus communis

Daucus communis ssp. carota

Daucus communis var. agrestis

Daucus communis var. allionii

Daucus communis var. marcidus

Daucus communis var. prostratus

Daucus communis var. pseudocarota

Daucus communis var. timbalianus

Daucus dentatus

Daucus exarmatus

Daucus exiguus

Daucus fernandezii

Daucus foliosus

Daucus gaditanus

Daucus gibbosus

Daucus gingidium

Daucus heterophylus

Daucus kotovii

Daucus levis

Daucus marcidus

Daucus maritimus

Daucus martellii

Daucus montanus

Daucus nudicaulis

Daucus officinalis

Daucus polygamus

Daucus scariosus

Daucus sciadophylus

Daucus strigosus

Daucus sylvestris

Daucus vulgaris

Daucus vulgaris var. atrorubens

Daucus vulgaris var. flavus

Daucus vulgaris var. polygamus

Platyspermum alatum

   

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, flower head, 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
Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace

Plant

 

Inflorescence

     
Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace

Inflorescence

 

Inflorescence

     
Queen Anne’s Lace   Queen Anne’s Lace

Inflorescence

 

Leaves

 

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

 

Created: 8/2/2008

Last Updated:

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