Royal Lace

Around the garden, the wildflowers are in bloom..
Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
This wild version of the carrot is one of the most common and best known "weeds" we have. It is hard to imagine what a fallow field would look in summer without the white flower heads bobbing in the breeze.
The Bird's nest name comes from the dried flower heads that curl up to resemble small bird nests.

It is thought that the carrots escaped from the gardens of the early European settlers in North America having thrived in the wild to become what we know as Queen Anne's Lace.

Indeed the roots can be eaten just like a small pale carrot if harvested while still young and tender. Pull up a plant anywhere and smell the root. You will find it smells just like a carrot.

The leaves have been eaten in times of hardship, but it is not recommended today. Because it can be mistaken for similar looking very poisonous species such as hemlock and fool's parsley with unpleasant results.

It is so called because the flower resembles lace; the red flower in the center represents a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. The function of the tiny red flower, coloured by anthocyanin, is to attract insects.

The plant is commonly referred to, as Cow Parsley ( Anthriscus sylvestris ) in Great Britain.