Daucus carota, Queen Anne’s Lace has been the subject of songs, poems and breeding efforts yielding our modern carrot. When harvested young enough, the tender tuber is: well… an edible carrot! Be careful if you choose to forage for these as their defense mechanism is to emulate poison relatives. It can be safely identified by the carrot odor of the roots.

I photographed this plant expecting to find the bees in a hive close by to be all over the Lace working if for nectar. I never saw a single one!

After more research, I found that Queen Anne’s Lace is not a prefered nectar source of bees. In fact, honey made from the plant smells like human body odor. Since I am not harvesting any honey yet, the bees are free to work the plant if desired to feed their young and continue building the colony.

Maybe next year I will visit this patch early to forage some wild carrots!