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Wild Carrot (Daucus carota)

Description: Wild carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s Lace was once grown as an ornamental. It is a biennial reproducing by seed. The first year’s growth produces a rosette of finely divided leaves and a fleshy taproot. The second year it sends up a flowering stem, blooms, and dies. The taproot becomes tough and woody by the second year. The stem is 1-3 feet tall, stout, hairy, and branched at the top. The leaves are alternate on the stem or basal, fine pinnately divided and hairy with a distinct carrot-like odor. The basal leaves are petioled and the stem leaves have petioles that sheath the stem. The white flowers are terminal on the long stem and its branches. The many flowers are grouped in compound, flat topped umbels which become concave as fruit matures. From the base all the way around the umbel extend conspicuous bracts that are cleft or pinnately divided into narrow segments. The seed, commonly a problem in red clover seed, is 1/3 inch long or less. The plant flowers from July through September and matures seed during August to November.

Distribution: Wild carrot is found throughout Johnson County and Iowa. Wild carrot is found in meadows, pastures, waste areas, roadsides, but not in cultivated fields.

What’s The Problem?: Although not normally a problem species, wild carrot can become dense enough to require management. Wild carrot can become the only species growing in an abused roadside or unused pasture, excluding more beneficial native grasses and plants.

Management Methods: Various possible management methods include: hand pulling or cutting, regular and properly timed mowing to prevent seed production, prescribed burning, proper pasture grass management (competitive seedings), and careful use of herbicides. Before using herbicides, read and understand the label completely. Weigh and study all management options before usage to be certain that herbicides are the tool needed.

photo of Wild Carrot

Photo couresy of Weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains published by Nebraska Department of Agriculture
photo of Wild Carrot

Photo courtesy of King County, WA Noxious Weed Control Program

photo of Wild Carrot

photo of Wild Carrot

Above photos couresy of Weeds of Nebraska and the Great Plains published by Nebraska Department of Agriculture

photo of Wild Carrot

Above photos courtesy of Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board