Queen Anne's Lace

Description:

It is so called because the flower resembles lace; the red flower in the center represents a blood droplet where Queen Anne pricked herself with a needle when she was making the lace. The function of the tiny red flower, coloured by anthocyanin, is to attract insects. A variable biennial plant, flowering from June to August. As they turn to seed, they contract and become concave like a bird's nest. The dried umbels detach from the plant, becoming tumbleweeds.

Habitat:

soil seed bank .

Notes:

Native to temperate regions of Europe, southwest Asia and naturalized to North America and Australia. Can be used as a companion plant to crops, it attracts wasps to its small flowers in its native land; however, where it has been introduced, it attracts only very few of such wasps . This species is also documented to boost tomato plant production when kept nearby, and it can provide a microclimate of cooler, moister air for lettuce, when intercropped with it. The USDA has listed it as a noxious weed, it is considered a serious pest in pastures.