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Project Noah Nature School
Daucus carota
Plant to 90cm tall; Stem green and narrow; flowers begin as a complex clustered ball of parts wrapped and held together like velcro; they unfurl to a white delicate umbel. Each flower has a single magenta part in its centre - this relates to the story behind the name.
Annual; currently profuse (late Jan 2012) within very open dry forest; grasslands and roadsides etc.
These flowers were the centres of activity for most wildlife in the area. Pic#5 shows several different insects feeding together. Umbelliferae family also known as wild carrot.
Sorry, a small correction - I checked some old pictures of mine. the plant does have fine hairs but not as much as on a Yarrow stem -the plant that is featured in LarsKorb's weblink.
I agree with Argybee. The plant in his spotting grows wild in these parts. The stems are long and thin but sturdy and not hirsute. Flower heads are a compound umbel and start off as a tightly curled green ball- opening up into little umbels with flowers. A single deep maroon flower is seen on a single stem in the middle. Yarrow does not have any of these features -leaves are feathery and soft.
The Queen Anne's lace flower stems stand upright close to a metre - some of the leaves resemble those of a carrot plant but are small. Leaves closer to the flower head are narrow and almost spiky with three lobes. I wish I could remember enough botany to give you a better picture ..
...might be...wouldn't be the first time Wiki being wrong :)
Happy we found to an ID and I learned more about wild carrots - thx to you.
I agree Lars that (your link) stem is very hairy and thick.. in fact that looks more like a yarrow to me but wikimedia has it as Daucus carota ?!! Maybe wiki is wrong. I can't see any red in the centre for one thing... I think it's wrong.
Variations might also be something to do with Aussie conditions?.
If you open the image in a new frame and inspect the stem it does seem hairy.
they are both in Asteraceae, but I agree with Argybee it is Queen Anne's Lace
Interesting. Every day something new :)
The relation is just the unranked order of Asterids.
One thing that still irritates me (but you can judge better since there is no clear pic of the stem): http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...
Look at the stem - it's pretty furry
After chewing on it a bit I realised it was a carrot :)
The key to ID was the red bit in the middle.
Maybe related to yarrows??.
Yes, I checked the pics of development, Argybee - i still think it's a type of yarrow...there are pretty much species of it.
Hi Lars - we have a yarrow in our back yard (out of control) and I can see some similarity in the flowers. This plant is very different in many other respects however especially leaves. If you check pics 2,3 you can see a new flower opening - very different to yarrow.. and our yarrow hangs around near the ground here where this flower shoots straight up to 60cm or maybe more. Thanks for the suggestion... I'll chew on it a bit :)
Spotted on Jan 31, 2012
Submitted on Jan 31, 2012
