Wild Carrot or Queen Anne's Lace leaves

Description:

This plant is all over the flood plain banks of our creek. The leaves look exactly like the carrots in our garden and when we pulled them up they even smelled like carrots and had a root like carrots. These were immature Queen Anne’s Lace plants in their first year because it did not develop a flower head.

Habitat:

banks of the creek

Notes:

This plant is edible, but so hard to distinguish from Poison Hemlock which is deadly so not good to risk it. One way to tell the difference is the smell one like carrots and the other deadly one stinks. another way is the stem Queen Anne’s Lace has a hairy, completely green stem and Poison Hemlock is smooth, and has purple or black spots, or streaks on the stem. Also Queen Anne’s Lace has a teeny tiny purple or crimson colored flower in the center of its blooms and if you see this you know it’s Queen Anne’s Lace. The story goes that Queen Anne was making lace when she pricked her finger and a drop of blood fell into the middle of her work, this is how the plant got its name.