Queen Anne’s Lace and Daucus carota, two names for wild carrot

In the West, wild carrot is called Queen Anne's Lace, in memory of the queen's love of needlework. It is held that Anne of Denmark, wife of the English king James I, brought to England a fashion for certain kinds of lace, together with splendour and courtliness. A second legend concerns the pink or red floret at the very centre of the snow-white, many-flowered umbel: it is said to be a drop of blood from a finger pricked by the needlewoman.

But wild carrot is interesting for more than its lacy history. Its scientific name, for instance, Daucus carota, is made up of a Latin and a Greek name meaning one and the same thing. Daucus is the Latin for carrot, carota is carrot in Greek. It may well have been a concentrated decoction of wild carrot that poisoned Socrates.

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Queen Anne’s Lace and Daucus carota, two names for wild carrot

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