Plant Profile: Wild Carrot

 Daucus carota L./Carrot family, Apiaceae

Wild carrot, Daucus carota, growing along a roadside near Maple Plain, MN, on August 10, 2024.

Wild carrot, also called Queen Anne’s lace, is a Eurasian biennial introduced to North America by colonists for food or medicinal use. It produces basal rosettes of carrot-like leaves the first year and leafy stems topped with umbels (umbrella-shaped clusters) of small, white flowers the second year. It blooms in mid- to late summer, typically in the dry soils and full sun of disturbed sites, such as abandoned lots, old fields, rail corridors, and roadsides. It spreads by seeds, and they are abundant. Because a single plant blooms continuously in its second year, that plant can produce thousands of seeds before it dies.

As the name “wild carrot” suggests, this is the ancestor of cultivated carrots. Wild carrot’s taproots are carrot-like in shape and smell, although they’re narrower than cultivated carrots and become bitter and woody with age, especially in the plant’s second year of growth.

Although some sources caution against eating wild carrot, it’s generally considered non-toxic and edible. Large quantities can raise blood pressure or make it difficult to regulate (1). In some people, sap from the plant can irritate the skin when it’s exposed to sunlight, a condition called phytophotodermatitis, literally “plant-light-skin inflammation” (2, 3, 4). In addition, carrot greens, presumably from cultivated carrots, are listed as mildly toxic on the list of poisonous plants from the MN Poison Control System, now the Minnesota Regional Poison Center. Wild carrot greens may have the same effect.

Deadly Look-Alikes

The much greater danger in foraging wild carrot is mistaking deadly look-alikes for this plant. Water hemlock (Cicuta maculata) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum), also in the carrot family, resemble wild carrot and have accidentally been added to salads or sampled in the field or garden. The result can be severe illness and even death caused by the plants’ alkaloids, compounds many plants produce to deter herbivores. All parts of these plants are toxic.

Three look-alikes. From left: Wild carrot, water hemlock, poison hemlock. Water hemlock photo by Rob Routledge, Sault College, Bugwood.org. Poison hemlock photo by Eric Coombs, Oregon Department of Agriculture, Bugwood.org.

Accurate Identification is Crucial

Several resources help identify wild carrot and its look-alikes. A plant identification sheet from the University of Minnesota Extension Service contrasts poison hemlock with ten other plants, including water hemlock and wild carrot. An article by the Clearwater Conservancy in Pennsylvania includes a table contrasting the characteristics of seven members of the carrot family, including those featured here. The Minnesota Department of Transportation also has a guide to identifying poison hemlock and its look-alikes..

Here are some additional tips.

Tip 1: Wild carrot umbels sometimes have a dark red or purple flower in the center. Beneath the umbels are long, branched bracts. After flowering, the umbels curl up and in to form a bowl or nest. That’s why wild carrot is sometimes called bird’s nest. Neither water hemlock nor poison hemlock have these characteristics.

 

Left: After flowering, wild carrot umbels turn up and in to form a small nest. Notice the long, branched bracts below the umbel. Right: A purple flower in the center of a wild carrot umbel (arrow). Not all umbels have them.

Tip 2: The plants are hardest to distinguish in their first year of growth, when they produce only basal leaves. All three have pinnately divided leaves, but wild carrot leaves are narrower in outline and more finely divided into narrower leaflets. The leaves of both water hemlock and poison hemlock are broader, triangular in outline, and have wider leaflets. Poison hemlock leaves are often described as fern-like.

 

From left: Leaves of wild carrot, water hemlock, and poison hemlock. Not to scale. Water hemlock photo by Steve Dewey, Utah State University, Bugwood.org. Poison hemlock photo by John Cardina, The Ohio State University, Bugwood.org

Tip 3: Habitat and flowering phenology differ somewhat among these plants, but because they overlap, they are less reliable characteristics. In general, wild carrot thrives in sunny, well-drained, disturbed places such as pastures, old fields, roadsides, and railway corridors. In Minnesota it flowers as early as May and as late as October, but more typically from July to September.

In contrast, water hemlock is an obligate wetland plant. It needs the moist soils of wet prairies, wet meadows, marshes, and streambanks. It flowers from June to September. Poison hemlock also prefers wet or moist soils, but it will tolerate drier conditions. Its habitats include streambanks, ditches, roadsides, and pastures. It flowers in June and July.

If You Find Poison Hemlock

Because poison hemlock, an introduced plant, is so hazardous and because it’s not yet so widespread in Minnesota that it can’t be controlled, its locations should be reported to Report A Pest or EDDMapS. Do not remove it without taking serious precautions. Better yet, hire a professional (5).

Cited References

1)     Wild Carrot. Missouri Poison Center. Accessed August 11, 2024.

2)     Wild Carrot. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Accessed August 11, 2024.

3)     Phytophotodermatitis Clinical Presentation. William P. Baugh, MD. Editor William D. James, MD. Medscape. Updated November 4, 2021.

4)     Queen Anne’s lace (Daucus carota). Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Accessed August 12, 2024.

5)     Poison hemlock. A. Gupta, A. Rager, and M. M. Weber. University of Minnesota Extension Service. Reviewed in 2020. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Additional References

Daucus carota (Queen Anne’s Lace). Minnesota Wildflowers. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Water Hemlock. G.D. Bebeau, The Friends of the Wildflower Garden, Inc. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Cicuta maculata (Water Hemlock). Minnesota Wildflowers. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Poison Hemlock. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum). Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Minnesota Noxious Weed List. Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Accessed August 12, 2024.

Chadde, S.W. 2012. Wetland Plants of Minnesota. 2^nd ed. A Bogman Guide.