Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, carrot flower, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of Afro-Eurasia with a number of regional subspecies, and is naturalised widely elsewhere. Carrots cultivated as a food crop are cultivars of the domesticated subspecies Daucus carota subsp. sativus.
Description
The wild carrot is a herbaceous, somewhat variable biennial plant that grows to 30–100 cm (1–3 ft), rarely 120 cm (4 ft) tall, and is roughly hairy, with a stiff, solid stem. The leaves are tripinnate, finely divided and lacy, and overall triangular in shape. The leaves are 5–15 cm (2–6 in) long, bristly and alternate in a pinnate pattern that separates into thin segments. The flowers are small and dull white, clustered in flat, dense umbels. The umbels are terminal and about 8–15 cm (3–6 in) wide. They may be pink in bud and may have one (rarely a few) pink, reddish or purple flower (the "ruby") in the centre of the umbel. There are 7–13 bracts below the umbel; these are three-forked or pinnate, which distinguishes the plant from other white-flowered umbellifers. As the seeds develop, the umbel curls up at the edges, becomes more congested, and develops a concave surface. The fruit is a small, dry, bumpy, oval and flattened carpel 2.5–4 mm long, with short styles and hooked spines, as well as protective hairs surrounding them; it is bicarpellate, with two mericarps. Its endosperm grows before the embryo. The dried umbels can detach from the plant, and have been suggested to have tumbleweed characteristics. The function of the tiny red flower, due to anthocyanin, is to attract insects. The flowers are mainly produced from June to August, rarely also in May or September.
D. carota is similar in appearance to the deadly poison hemlock, but is readily...
