Wild carrot's lacy white blooms are everywhere right now
iNaturalist Community
Phenology
Those umbrella-shaped white flower clusters popping up in vacant lots and roadside ditches this week are Queen Anne's lace, the wild ancestor of the carrot in your garden bed, and its bloom is a magnet for tiny predatory wasps that help control garden pests.
Wild carrot is the scraggly white-flowered plant most people know as Queen Anne's lace, and it's the same species that farmers bred into the orange carrots you eat. Right now nearly 1,400 people logged sightings of it on iNaturalist in one week, which means it's in full, unmistakable bloom across its range. The flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers, often with a single dark purple floret in the center, make it one of the easiest wildflowers to identify this time of year.
Key Findings
1,397 research-grade observations of wild carrot (Daucus carota) were logged on iNaturalist in a single week
The species ranks among the most-observed plants on the platform this week, indicating peak bloom timing
Wild carrot is the direct wild ancestor of the cultivated carrot, sharing the same species name
chevron_right Technical Summary
Wild carrot, the plant that gave us the domestic carrot, is having a huge moment on iNaturalist with nearly 1,400 sightings logged in a single week. That kind of spike usually means it's peak bloom season and easy to spot along roadsides and fields.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Trending: wild carrot (Daucus carota) — 1397 observations this week
wild carrot is among the most observed plant species this week with 1397 research-grade observations.
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
Species Mentioned
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Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, carrot flower, and Queen Anne's lace, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old World with a number of regional subspecies, and is naturalised w...