Look closerPlants
Queen Anne's lace curling into bird's nests as it goes to seed
When: July to September
As its seeds ripen, each flat white Queen Anne's lace flower curls inward into a brown cup that looks just like a little bird's nest, and in late summer fields hold open flowers and closed nests side by side.
Why this time of year
Bloom runs June through August with early flowers already gone to seed, so late August is the sweet spot when one plant can show every stage at once, lace to fist to nest.
How to notice it
- Find a stand along a field edge or roadside and look for the whole timeline on neighboring stalks: flat white lace, half-curled fists, closed brown nests.
- Peek inside a closed nest to see the seeds ripening.
- This is the wild form of the garden carrot; the family resemblance is real.
- Look, do not pick or taste; see the safety notes.
Try this with kids: Can you find all three stages, flower, fist, and bird's nest, on one walk?
an umbel is a flower head shaped like an umbrella, made of many tiny flowers
Safety
- Never taste anything in the wild-carrot family: poison hemlock and water hemlock are deadly lookalikes, a warning every source repeats.
- Handling the leaves and sap can give some people a rash, worse in sunlight, so eyes-only is the family rule.
Sources
- hort.extension.wisc.eduAs the seeds ripen, the flower head curls inward to form a bird's nest shape and turns a brownish color; it is called wild carrot because this is the European plant cultivated carrots were developed from; similar-looking plants such as poison hemlock and water hemlock are deadly poisonous, so care must be taken with wild plants.
- homegarden.cahnr.uconn.eduQueen Anne's lace blossoms typically appear from June through August; as the seeds ripen, the flower head curls inward like a closed fist or bird's nest and turns brown; it is the wild carrot with a distinctive carrot smell to the taproots; other plants such as poison hemlock have similar flowers and foliage but deadly outcomes.
- plants.ces.ncsu.eduUmbels of white flowers appear from mid-summer to mid-fall; dried fruit clusters fold inward into a rounded shape; lookalikes include water hemlock and poison hemlock; the plant can cause contact dermatitis in some people, with the toxic principle in leaves and sap and worse in light; the domestic carrot is a subspecies of the same plant.
In the guide for July, August, September