Queen Anne’s Lace

Queen Anne’s Lace is native to Europe and Asia and introduced into Australia and North America. It is also known as Wild Carrot. When we found it along the roadside in Kennedy Flats on 27 June 2020, I commented to Erika that the plant has carrot-like leaves. Grocery store carrots are derived from the wild variety, and are considered to be a subspecies. Wild Carrot is tough and inedible by the time they flower. Although some people consider this weed to be beneficial—it can attract bees and wasps and provide cover for other crop plants—the State of Washington and other states consider Wild Carrot to be a noxious weed. Wild Carrot is accused of destroying grasslands by out-competing native species, being poisonous to livestock, and producing inferior crop carrots though interbreeding. Consequently, Washington warns that you are “prohibited to transport, buy, sell, offer for sale, or distribute plants or plant parts of [this] species…or sell, offer for sale, or distribute seed packets of seed, flower seed blends, or wildflower mixes” containing Wild Carrot (WA Noxious Weed Control Board).