Eastern Forest Threat Center - Queen Anne's Lace

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Queen Anne's lace flower cluster

Queen Anne's lace flower cluster

Ohio State University Weed Lab Archive, Bugwood.org

Queen Anne's Lace
Daucus carota

Queen Anne’s lace, a member of the carrot family, is native to Europe.

Keywords: Apiaceae, herbaceous, biennial, hairy stems, umbrella-shaped flower cluster, bristled fruits, hooked spines; Common names: bird's nest, wild carrot

Distribution Map Distribution Source Image

Threat Description

Queen Anne’s lace is an herbaceous biennial growing 2-4 ft. in height. Stems are erect, hairy, hollow, grooved, and branched at the top. Leaves are basal, alternate, and pinnately compound with finely divided, fernlike leaflets. Basal rosettes remain green over winter. The upper leaves of second-year plants are stalkless with white sheaths at leaf bases. Small white flowers with 5 petals occur in a terminal, umbrella-shaped cluster at the ends of the stems. The plant produces a succession of flowering stalks until it dies with the first frost. The primary umbel curls inward representing a bird’s nest. Small brown fruits are dry, ribbed with bristly hairs, and have hooked spines that attach to clothing or animal fur, aiding in dispersal. One plant can produce 1,000 to 40,000 seeds. The root system is comprised of a long slender white taproot and fibrous secondary roots that may become woody with age. Queen Anne's lace prefers well-drained, fine-particle soil and full sun. It grows in disturbed dry grasslands, fields, meadows, pastures, ditches, waste places, and railroad and highway rights-of-way. It invades open waste ground, competing for resources with native grasses and forbs.