Queen Anne's Lace - Unleashing curiosity
- Amanda Zambon
- Jul 27
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 30
Queen Anne's Lace (daucus carota) has long fascinated me. From its delicate flowers all white but one in the middle, to its 'birds nest' seed head, there is much intrigue around this plant that draws me in and leaves me wanting to know more. It is the wild ancestor of the carrot, having gone from humble beginnings to becoming one of the most consumed vegetables on the planet. It's a plant that reminds me that curiosity is what leads to growth, regardless of where we are in our lives.
This plant profile covers:
Identification of Queen Anne's Lace
Like many of her sisters in the carrot (apiaceae) family, Queen Anne's Lace has a beautiful umbel of white flowers and feathery leaves. It is important to identify her correctly, as some of her relatives are deadly poisonous - for example Hemlock and Hemlock Water Dropwort.
Queen Anne's Lace has one very clear identification feature: The middle flower of her white umbels often is red or purple - supposedly from the drop of blood that fell from Queen Anne's finger when she pricked it while making lace. But what is the biological purpose of this? Nobody quite knows -- I explore this further in the biodiversity section below.
The flower head is usually flat, distinguishing it from many of her sister species which grow in more of a rounded umbel.
She is also quite hairy (hence the saying, "the queen has hairy legs"),and has bracts growing under her flower head -- neither feature are present with hemlock for example.
And best of all, the way her seeds then curl up in a 'birds nest' shape is pretty distinctive and stands out clearly on a late summer landscape. What secrets is she guarding within these bird nest cocoons?
And of course, if you crush her feathery leaves, they have a very distinctive carrot smell to them which is not present in other similar looking plants.
She is native to Europe and North Africa, South West and Eastern Asia, but has also been introduced to and become naturalised in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
History: The making of a carrot
When I first found out that Queen Anne's Lace was the wild ancestor of the carrot, living in our midst - it really blew my mind! I immediately wanted to know the story.
Her own root is a pretty thin, uninspiring white taproot. It was not always obvious that this would later be bred to become one of the top ten consumed vegetables on the planet. Why, I wonder, was she singled out for such a destiny?
Initial breeding of the plant started in around 1000 BC, but according to Greek and Roman texts, this was mostly for its medicinal or flavouring qualities - and it was frequently confused with parsnips!
It wasn't until around 900AD, in modern day Afghanistan, that local farmers realised that through selective breeding they could get species that was a bit sweeter, and less woody. But the plant was still purple or white at this stage.
The use of the plant spread through the expansion of the Islamic Empire, up into North Africa then across to Spain and southern Europe. By 12th Century, cultivated purple and yellow carrots appeared in Europe but it still wasn't a major food crop, and it still wasn't orange.
In the 16th and 17th Century, Dutch Horticulturists began selectively breeding carrots for sweeter flavour and larger more uniform roots. The orange variety became favoured, and legend has it that this was in honour of the House of Orange-Nassau, the royal family that led the Dutch Revolt against Spanish Rule.
Whether this is indeed the reason for the orange variety becoming more widespread is debated - yet another enigma in the history of this plant.
Nowadays, of course, purple and yellow carrots have had a bit of a comeback in the farmer's market scene - and are sold at quite a premium price.
The evolution of her identity in folklore
One of the reasons that this plant evokes so much curiosity in me is how her persona has evolved significantly through the ages.
In Roman times, she was often confused with parsnip. "Pastinaca" could mean either Pastinaca sativa or Daucus carota. By 1548, William Turner had published, "The names of Herbes", and he gave vernacular and Latin names for plants known in England, distinguishing the wild carrot from parsnip. It's recognized as the first English-language herbal to use Latin “carota” for the cultivated carrot, and to name Daucus carota explicitly.
So when did the plant become known as Queen Anne's Lace?
Queen Anne of Great Britain, who reigned from 1707-1714. As I mentioned above, the story goes that she pricked her finger while making lace, and that's what gives the red flower in the middle its red or purple colour.
Interestingly, reference to the flower by this name is not found historically until around 100 years after Queen Anne's death - and its first reference in botanical sources wasn't until 1895 when it appeared in an illustrated guide labelled with that common name (Brockhaus's series).
The term “Queen Anne’s lace” was especially popularised in North America, where the plant was introduced by European settlers and quickly became naturalised.
Foraging Uses
The flowers, leaves and seeds are all edible and have a mild carotty taste - great for adding to salads, soups or stews. However, they should be avoided by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
The root is also edible, but can be quite tough so it's best used to flavour dishes, and then removed before eating. Personally, I prefer to use the more easily accessible parts of the plant!
I also think it makes a beautiful decorative plant and I always collect a few dried seed heads to put in my home each year - taking a symbol of the abundance of summer with me throughout the dark winter days.
It's also a really easy plant to introduce to your garden by scattering the seed heads - then you will have it come back year after year.
Herbal medicine uses
As mentioned previously, its use in ancient times was predominantly medicinal. It has a rich and varied use across cultures:
Native Americans have used it as a diuretic and for digestive issues as well as female contraception
Those hedonistic Romans reportedly used the plant both as an aphrodisiac and also as a morning after pill...!
Indian Ayurveda uses it as a diuretic and to treat digestive issues.
For more on the medicinal history of this plant across cultures, click here - you will see that many common qualities come out when looking at how different cultures have used it.
This plant isn't the most obvious 'go to' for modern herbalists, but it is recorded as having diuretic, carminative, antiseptic, and anti-inflammatory properties, and it has a history of being used to treat kidney and bladder complaints, gout, cancers, coughs and ulcers (see Mrs Grieve's Herbal).
Biodiversity
The plant also plays a key role in biodiversity - its broad, lacy umbels attracting a broad range of pollinators including bees, hoverflies, beetles and solitary wasps.
But her secrets remain closely guarded. The dark central florette remains an enigma to biologists trying to figure out its functional use.
Darwin speculated that it no longer had any functional use; that it may have once acted to attract insects by mimicking a dead insect and so drawing more insects towards it, but that this was no longer the case.
A 2001 study seems to largely agree with him, but another from 2009 suggests that it does indeed act as an insect mimic.
What I found fascinating reading these articles is that the plant clearly creates a little micro world of interactions between insects. The 2001 study states that:
"What is clear an aspect of the pollination ecology that may hold the key to this enigma is that of interactions between species on umbels. Insects visit the umbels for different reasons: to feed on nectar or pollen; to locate mates; to hunt prey."
Concluding thoughts
The more I learn about this wonderful plant, the more it reminds me that we have to remain curious about the enigmas of life, and that this is what keeps life interesting.
Edith Eger, Holocaust survivor, talks about the importance of curiosity for mental wellbeing. "Curiosity", she ways, "is the opposite of trauma".
What does engaging with Queen Anne's Lace teach us about curiosity?
The farmers who were once curious about her spindly roots eventually created a food crop that would go on to change global cuisine forever. This is quite an empowering thought.
As a wild ancestor she continues to sway in our midst, still guarding her medicinal powers: to invite pleasure, to act as a diuretic and antiseptic, and perhaps even to treat cancer.
And no matter how much we think we understand nature, there remains much we just do not know. Her red flower reminds us of this. Will we ever understand it? Do we need to?
Knowing all of this, just sitting with her and soaking in her enigmas feels inspiring in itself. I invite you to do the same. Please, let me know what comes up.
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