hey guys this is josh here trillion wild edibles and today i want to show you an identification video on Queen Anne's lace or wild Garrett before as it's known by its scientific name daucus carota these very large white unbelled flowers that we're looking at right here is daucus carota or the wild Garrett this plant has an extremely distinct flower as you can notice here it's in the shape of an umbel with white flowers now you might be asking yourself what exactly is an umbel an umbel is like an upside-down umbrella right here it gives you guys a really good idea of what it looks like whenever you turn it at a silhouette angle you can see that it is somewhat like an upside-down umbrella which is why it's called an unbell of flowers the point that we're looking at today is extremely large and has about five or six different flower heads on it now the flowers of Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot are rather unique not only in their shape but in the fact that they usually will have a purple flora in the center now whenever we look very closely at this cluster of white flowers you might notice that there are five petals I apologize for this being out of focus a little bit this is just very very hard to show this in detail but right here on this flower you guys may be able to notice the one two three petals and then the two very small ones right there at the bottom I apologize for the shakiness here this is just really hard because of these things sighs there you can see my index finger so it gives you an idea of how small these flowers of each one of these individual flowers can actually be here's another really good view of what an unbalanced e all of these different branches that each has a cluster of white flowers now another thing that you might notice is the flower Brax underneath the flower just like you can see these are very unique in shape and they're very sharply divided these flower Brax will go all the way around at the base or the node where the flower joins the very top of the stem and you will notice this on every flower cluster and then if we look here from this angle you guys can see more of those Brax right back in here now another interesting thing to note remember how I said sometimes you'll see a purple flower or floor it in the center you won't always find that note that there isn't one on this um Bell right here in my hand and there also is in a purple flower in the center of this huge white um bell either and these are all on the exact same plant but if we look on this one we can see that purple floret right there in the center it looks like a black speck but that is the purple flower that is distinctive of Queen Anne's lace okay so now that we've taken a look at the flowers of Queen Anne's lace or daucus carota let's go ahead and take a look at it's very unique leaves now seeing how this plant is a carrot it is a wild carrot its leaves look just like domestic carrot leaves and that's one of the really nice things about this plant is that it's kind of hard to mistake for something else now it does have a toxic look-alike and that is poison hemlock now last year I actually did a video on a comparison between Queen Anne's lace yarrow and poison hemlock so if you're interested I'll put a link in the description down below so that way you guys can check that out now the leaves of Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot are in a pin eight compound shape meaning that they're very sharply divided and sometimes it's going to look like multiple leaves when it's actually one whole leaf because the leaf is divided into these compound structures now you may notice on this leaf here in front of us how these individual leaflets are very spaced out whereas on some other leaves like on this leaf right here you can see that the leaflets are a lot more close together so there is going to be some variation within these leaves now another thing that we might notice if we look really close is that each one of these at the tip right here comes to a very sharp point and there are actually small teeth on the ends of these pinnate compound leaflets now if we look at the leaf stem that holds the leaves we are going to notice these little hairs running down its links another thing that you're going to notice on the leaves of Queen Anne's lace or daucus carota is on the very top of the leaf stem you're going to see this distinct groove running all the way down okay so now that we've taken a look at the leaves and the flowers let's take a quick look at the stem of Queen Anne's lace now just like you can see here the stem is round there's really no discerning features except for the hairs that you can see right here running all up and down the length of the stem and every stem on this plant will have these hairs the leaf stems and the main stems so that's something important to keep in mind because poison hemlock does not have these hairs or these fuzz they feel like bristles they feel like bristles on like a really small brush they're kind of stiff but they're also kind of soft at the same time they don't prick they don't make any stings or itching sensations at least not within me it's a very easy plant to identify it also smells like carrot most of the entire plant has a faint but very pleasant carrot smell with kind of a sweetness to it it's really really nice whenever you smell this plant it's one of the things that can help you to identify it as Queen Anne's lace however that's not something you'd want to try if you think that you might have a hemlock instead of a Queen Anne's lace now you guys might be wondering where all this Queen Anne's lace grow and how tall does it grow this plant can grow up to about six-and-a-half even seven feet tall in some rare cases usually though you're going to find it about this tall which this is about five and a half feet tall right now Queen Anne's lace is a field loving plant so it usually grows on the edges of clearings like you can see here on the edge of those woodlot on my property you can also find it in very large fields you can find it on the edges of corn and bean fields you can even find it growing in your lawn I have quite a bit of it trying to grow in my lawn for a good example now back over there those white flowers those huge white bouquet or um Belle's of flower clusters is some more Queen Anne's lace so that gives you guys kind of an idea that it can grow on the edges of wood Lots it's a very Sun loving plant but it also tolerates the shade rather well so that's kind of a good thing now this plant is a edible plant and it's also a medicinal plant I'm not too sure of its medicinal uses though so I won't talk about that today however I will discuss it that ability for just a split second the young stalks before the plant has flowered like you see here are actually edible raw after you peel off the skin I don't have any at that stage yet but it is something to keep in mind that not only the root of this plant is edible but also the young shoots some people have told me that they can't eat the flowers of this plant but I have never tried that myself so I can't say whether they taste any good however whenever you come to dig up the root of this plant which you should be doing in the fall you're going to notice that the root is white and it has a very faint but sweet and pleasant carrot odor to it you want to dig up the root in the fall because during this time of the year all the plants nutrients are up in the plant and in the full it will send all those down to the root it's a very easy plant to dig up however the roots are extremely tiny and can be kind of woody so they're better for flavoring than really eating is like a carrot substitute so that's how you guys identify Queen Anne's lace or daucus carota and I thank you guys for watching this video I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you learned just a little bit of something if you want to learn more about edible or medicinal plants please make sure to 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