Queen Anne’s lace

not listed

NNA - Not applicable

SNA - Not applicable

not listed

Invasive

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 ⁄64″to 1⁄16″ 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 ⅛″ 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 5⁄16″ long stalks (raylets).

The flowers are about ⅛″ 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, ⅛″ 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.

16″ to 60″

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

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

June to September

Sources

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

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

Common

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

Plant

Inflorescence

Leaves

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Pine Bend Bluffs SNA

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