Queen Anne's lace

Queen Anne's lace, scientifically known as Daucus carota, is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe and southwestern Asia, and naturalized throughout North America and Australia. It is the wild ancestor of the domestic carrot. The plant is easily recognized by its finely divided, fern-like leaves and its distinctive flat-topped clusters of tiny white flowers, often featuring a single dark purple or red flower in the center, which is said to represent a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked her finger. As a biennial, it develops a rosette of leaves and a taproot in its first year, followed by a flowering stem up to one meter tall in its second year. While attractive in meadows and wildflower gardens, it can act as an aggressive agricultural weed in certain regions.