Wild Carrot.Daucus Carota.Queen Ann’s Lace.
Very common by the wayside and in dry fields, blossoming from July through September.
The round stalk, from 2 to 3 feet high, coarse in fibre, and roughened by short hairs, is light yellow-green in color.
The leaf has a very fringy effect, being much cut up into long narrow lobes; the surface is roughened; and the short foot-stem widens into a leafy, clasping sheath. The yellowish-green, alternate leaves are few, and far between.
The petal-like parts of the small clustered flowers are unequal in size and number,—three or four of the outer flowers in each cluster are larger than the rest; the color is white, with tiny yellow-tipped stamens. The flowers have pale green foot-stems, and grow in flat-topped clusters, each cluster being set around at the foot with a green leafy fringe. In the center of the cluster is often found a single dark purple flower.
Though the growth is sprangly, and the stem coarse, yet the flower is delicate with a lace-like quality. The seed-stems, curling inward, form a hollow, nest-like cup, from which characteristic it is often called the “Bird’s-nest plant.” It is deemed a great pest by farmers.