Let’s go straight to your name. I’ve always known you as Queen Anne’s Lace. What’s with “wild carrot”?
In North America, I’m often called Queen Anne’s Lace. But in Europe, Asia, and North Africa – my original homes – I’m recognized as a carrot. In fact, I’m the same species as the table carrots you buy in the store: Daucus carota.
Wow! So Queen Anne’s Lace – or wild carrot – is an edible plant?
Yes, although many years of breeding have changed me, the wild carrot, into the sweeter carrots you use for salads and cooking. But like the domestic carrot, all parts of Queen Anne’s Lace are edible: leaves, roots, and flowers. I recommend caution, of course. There are many plants that look like me, including the highly toxic Poison Hemlock.
Thanks for sorting that out. Now I can return to my regular questions! What’s your favourite colour?
You’ll see my delicate white clusters of flowers – which are called umbels – almost everywhere at this time of year. But if you look closely, you’ll often find a single purple or dark red flower at the centre of these clusters. So I have two favourite colours: white and deep red.
Why do you have only one red flower?
That’s a secret I’ve kept for millennia! You’ve come up with some theories, however. Legend says that Queen Anne of England, who was famous for her lace-making, once pricked her finger and my red flower is a single drop of her blood. An intriguing story if highly unlikely. According to other theories, the single red flower mimics an insect and therefore attracts other pollinators. Keeping guessing, I say!
Do you have a BFF?
I have a very wide circle of friends. I’m a wonderful late-season source of food for pollinators like wasps, bees, flies, and beetles. Birds and small animals such as voles enjoy my foliage and seeds. A young friend I see quite often is the caterpillar of the Black Swallowtail butterfly.
What’s your superpower?
When my flowers go to seed, the umbels roll upward. I start to look like a bird’s nest! These seed clusters can break off and roll away like tumbleweeds. I don’t know if that’s a superpower but it’s certainly a neat trick.
One wish?
I’ve heard it’s been hard to enjoy nature this summer due to your limited access to trails and woods. Please take time to enjoy the roadside flowers. Goldenrod, chicory, yarrow, and me, the wild carrot. We’ll be blooming all fall!
Each month, Wild Talk columnist Katherine Barrett interviews a local plant while printmaker Vanessa McKiel captures their portrait.
