Family Apiaceae

Queen Anne’s Lace, or Wild Carrot, is a biennial in the Umbelliferae – the carrot family.   It’s native to temperate Europe and Asia, and was bred for a larger and more edible root, which became the domestic carrot.

Queen Anne’s Lace has been in America for such a long time that many people think of it as a weedy native.  It grows along roadsides, the edges of fields, and other disturbed places.  The flower is white and lacy, often with one small dark red blossom in the center.

 

Queen Anne’s Lace is a weed in all our planted prairies.  It was kept under control when the fields were cultivated, but after we planted the prairies and stopped spraying with herbicides, the seeds in the soil sprouted. The main problem with having so much of it is that it makes the natives – especially ones with white flowers – harder to see.  It doesn’t seem to inhibit the growth of natives.

This is the Narrows Prairie, five years after we planted it.

Western Prairie – four years after planting

 

The flowers are very attractive to many kinds of insects.

Viceroy butterfly

 

Meadow Fritillary

 

Black Swallowtail caterpillars will eat the leaves

 

I wish I could get rid of all the Queen Anne’s Lace, but it just isn’t possible – there’s too much of it.  I do try to get it out of our remnants.  I pull the plants when they’re flowering, and remove them to the compost pile. This sounds crazy – it’s a lot of work – but if the area isn’t too big and has lots of natives, it’s worth it.  And I enjoy it – it means I spend more time really looking at the prairie plants.

This is Hidden Oaks Meadow – a small remnant that had a flourishing population of Queen Anne’s Lace.

 

I spent a few days weeding it – and this was the result.

Since I removed the source of seeds, the number of Queen Anne’s Lace plants the following year was much lower, and it took much less time to weed them.

 

In planted prairies, Queen Anne’s Lace is mostly a problem in the first few years.  We’ve discovered that helps to mow newly planted prairies several times in the first 2 or 3 years, timing the mowing to prevent the flowers from going to seed.  After that Queen Anne’s Lace seems to be much less of a problem – it may be that a more stable habitat and more competition from natives means that the weedy QAL plants don’t fare as well.

This is Sheep Hill Bluff Prairie.  It was sprayed with glyphosate in the fall of 2021, and planted that winter.

9/4/2022  This was the second mowing this first summer – to be sure the Queen Anne’s lace didn’t go to seed.

 

7/17/23  It was mowed twice this year – its second summer.  Once at the end of July, and once at the end of August – both times for Queen Anne’s Lace.

 

In 2024 and 2025 it didn’t have enough Queen Anne’s Lace to be worth mowing.

7/19/2025