What is this?

[catjac1975]

I have this lush carrot like foliage in a flower bed. I was hoping it is a self sown flower but it seems to be everywhere. Any ideas ? I am in Massachusetts.

 

[lesa]

Pretty sure it is Queen Anne's Lace. It is a member of the carrot family- and if you pull it, it looks like a white carrot....

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep. Queen Anne's Lace. A nice mixed batch of it.

Definitely a weed. Beautiful foliage though.

If you are saving seeds of carrots, these will cross with your carrots, and you'll only get Queen Anne's Lace of a new variety out of the deal.

I see a bramble Berry coming up in the photo too.

I think I see Daffodil leaves. Careful when you pull the queen annes lace out that you don't get all kinds of thorns and that you try to leave your daffodil leaves in there to dry.

 

[catjac1975]

I was afraid of that! Looked so good in the spring. I thought it might be a wanted batch of volunteers. So the digging begins. It is beautiful foliage though. As uses for it? Bramble berry? Do you mean wild blackberries?

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep, I see a wild blackberry in there. Lower left corner, heading toward the right a little bit.

I said brambleberry because when ya just see them like this, blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, loganberries, and a lot of them look so similar.

I'm not sure about the uses of queen annes lace. wikipedia it. I can think of one use. Beautiful groundcover. Ya know, if this is where ya had carrots last year, these could be carrots, or even carrot/queen annes lace cross. I've been curious about what a person would get if the cross was backcrossed to carrot for a few generations...It actually could potentially be a pretty good thing, some kind of extremely vigorous edible carrot if done right...

Carrot X Queen Annes Lace

F1 X Carrot...select for vigor and some kind of fat root

X Carrot...select for vigor and decent root

X Carrot...select for vigor and better root

X Carrot...select for vigor and good root

hmmm...and from these, a whole new set of varieties by crossing with different carrots and stabilizing new varieties...

Wow, this PROBABLY will be done. I would not doubt if someone is doing this already!

 

[catjac1975]

There was one queen anne's lace quite away from these. Wish I had pulled it sooner. It is a beautiful foliage. I bought a black hybrid queen anne's lace years ago but it was not very hardy-beautiful though.

Yep, I see a wild blackberry in there. Lower left corner, heading toward the right a little bit.

I said brambleberry because when ya just see them like this, blackberries, dewberries, raspberries, loganberries, and a lot of them look so similar.

I'm not sure about the uses of queen annes lace. wikipedia it. I can think of one use. Beautiful groundcover. Ya know, if this is where ya had carrots last year, these could be carrots, or even carrot/queen annes lace cross. I've been curious about what a person would get if the cross was backcrossed to carrot for a few generations...It actually could potentially be a pretty good thing, some kind of extremely vigorous edible carrot if done right...

Carrot X Queen Annes Lace

F1 X Carrot...select for vigor and some kind of fat root

X Carrot...select for vigor and decent root

X Carrot...select for vigor and better root

X Carrot...select for vigor and good root

hmmm...and from these, a whole new set of varieties by crossing with different carrots and stabilizing new varieties...

Wow, this PROBABLY will be done. I would not doubt if someone is doing this already!

 

[897tgigvib]

One of the things breeders work for with ornamental plants is to make them less aggressive, and at the same time more beautiful.

My idea would be to work the other way around.

 

[catjac1975]

Well I finally pulled up the Queen Anne's Lace. Even with the long tap root it was surprisingly easy to pull up. The horses LOVED them.