Queen Anne's Lace

Description:

This biennial herbaceous plant consists of a rosette of basal leaves during the first year, bolting upward during the second year to produce flowering stalks. The basal leaves are arching-spreading; their blades are up to 5" long and 2½" across, while their slender petioles are up to 5" long. Mature second-year plants are 2-5' tall. The central stem of second-year plants is light green (sometimes tinted red), vertically veined, terete, hollow, nearly glabrous to spreading-hairy, and sparingly branched. Alternate leaves occur sparingly along the central stem and any lateral stems of second-year plants; their blades are up to 4" long and 2" across. Instead of true petioles, alternate leaves are attached to sheaths that become partially detached from the stems. These sheaths are up to 2" long, light green, nearly glabrous, and trough-shaped. The blades of both basal leaves and alternate leaves are bipinnate-pinnatifid or pinnate-bipinnatifid in structure; their ultimate leaf segments are 3-10 mm. long, 1-4 mm. across, oblong-linear or narrowly rhombic in shape, and sometimes sparsely ciliate along their margins. The upper surface of these leaf segments is light-medium green and glabrous, while the lower surface is light green and glabrous to sparsely hairy. The rachises of the compound leaf blades and leaflets are narrowly furrowed above, convex or V-shaped below, and nearly glabrous to spreading-hairy. Overall, the appearance of compound leaves for this plant is rather lacy or fern-like. The foliage has a bitter-soapy aroma that is typical of carrots.