Queen Anne’s Lace
aka wild carrot, bishop’s lace
Daucus carota
Apiaceae

This is probably the plant from which modern carrots were derived, and so we owe it some respect.  Except that it has escaped cultivation and grows wild all over the US and most of Canada and is a serious pasture pest.  Four states list it as a noxious weed.

When I was a child “summer” meant riding in the back of my parents’ convertible, watching the Queen Anne’s lace and chicory* go by on the roadside. So pretty!  That might even be my earliest memory of “wildflowers”, though the grown-up me dismisses them as alien invasives.

At any rate, I haven’t paid attention to Queen Anne’s lace in years.  Never even took a photograph of one until recently.  While hiking along the C&O Canal towpath near lock 8, I saw some particularly tall specimens with flowers just starting to open.

I was quite taken with the form, and spent some time shooting them from different angles.

It’s really striking this way, isn’t it?  Much more aesthetically pleasing, and harder to dismiss as a roadside weed.

*chicory, aka cornflower and a host of other common names; Cichorium intybus, Asteraceae: