Queen Anne’s Lace Seeds – Daucus carota

Queen Anne's Lace is classified as a noxious weed in several U.S. states, including Michigan, Ohio, and Washington, where it can spread aggressively into agricultural land and disturbed habitats. Before planting, it is worth checking your state's department of agriculture website for current listings. In many states it is perfectly legal to grow and simply requires thoughtful management to keep it contained.

Because Daucus carota is a biennial, seeds sown in spring or summer will typically produce only leafy rosettes in the first growing season. Flowering happens in the second year, usually from early to midsummer depending on your climate. If you sow seeds two years in a row you will establish a self-sustaining cycle with blooms appearing every summer thereafter.

The Daucus carota edible root is the same species as the cultivated carrot, and the taproot of young first-year plants is technically edible with a carroty, sometimes slightly bitter flavor. The root becomes woody and unpleasant by the second year when the plant puts its energy into flowering. That said, foraging wild carrot requires absolute certainty in identification, since it shares habitat with toxic look-alikes.

This is one of the most important questions any grower or forager should ask. Queen Anne's Lace has a hairy stem with a distinctive carroty scent when the foliage is crushed, and usually displays a single tiny dark purple floret at the center of the flower cluster. Poison hemlock has smooth, hairless stems with distinctive purple-red blotches, no carrot scent, and no central dark floret. When in doubt, do not harvest or handle any plant you cannot confidently identify.

Queen Anne's Lace is a biennial, not a true perennial, so individual plants complete their life cycle over two years and then die after setting seed. However, it reseeds so freely that a well-established planting will appear to come back reliably year after year as new seedlings replace the old plants. With a little management you can keep a patch going indefinitely without replanting.

The two most reliable windows for sowing are early spring, once the soil has warmed to at least 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and late fall, when you can let winter cold naturally stratify the seeds. Fall-sown seeds often show strong germination the following spring. Starting indoors is generally not recommended since Daucus carota develops a taproot early and resents transplanting.

Queen Anne's Lace can cause contact dermatitis in some people, particularly those with sensitive skin, when the sap or foliage is handled in sunlight, a reaction sometimes called phytophotodermatitis. It is mildly toxic to dogs and cats if consumed in larger quantities and can reportedly affect horses, so planting it away from livestock pastures is wise. Children should be taught not to handle or taste any white-flowered plant without adult supervision, given the risk of confusion with toxic species.