Along with Chicory (see below), Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota) is one of the great roadside wildflowers. The common name comes from the beautiful white flowers. They are clustered into flowering stalks called umbels, with what looks like a single flower at first actually being a bunch of umbels each made of a group of individual flowers that arise from the same spot.
Queen Anne's lace
Umbels look like tiny umbrellas (maybe from the same root word?). Queen Anne’s lace is in the carrot family, the Apiaceae, formerly called the Umbellifera because to the distinctive flowering stalks found in the group of plants. Often inflorescences, or flowering stalks, are a key to the family a plant belongs to.
Queen Anne’s lace is native to Europe. It is the species from which the domesticated carrot was derived. Wild plants have somewhat fleshy tap root. Their leaves definitely look carrot-like.
Note dark colored single flower in center of inforescence of Queen Anne's lace
Lots of Queen Anne’s lace can be seen around Indy this summer, even with our heat and drought. I nice stand is in the formerly landscaped area near the sidewalk at the former Bee Windows store on 54th Street near the Monon.
Field shot of Queen Anne's lace
