Wild carrot (Queen Anne’s lace)

Daucus carota L.
Apiaceae (Carrot family)

Life cycle

Erect, fernlike biennial (a plant which blooms in its second year).

Leaves

First-year leaves originate from a basal rosette followed by an erect flowering stem with few leaves in the second year. Cotyledons are long, very narrow and thin. Leaves are doubly compound, fernlike and attached by long stalks inflated at the base. Damaged leaves will emit a carrotlike odor.

Stems

Erect, hollow, grooved, rough-hairy stems elongate during the second year, up to 5 feet tall with numerous branches.

Flowers and fruit

Numerous white flowers, often with a central purple flower, form terminal,
2- to 6-inch-wide, flat-topped clusters. Fruit have two egg-shaped sections; each section is yellow to grayish brown, flattened on one side and ridged with barbed spines.