SC - help-Queen Ann's Lace

[Stephen Bloch]

Brid wrote:
> > << I thought Queen Ann's Lace was poisonous?

Ras replied:
> > Say what? Queen's Anne Lace is the wild carrot. If you take the seed palnt
> > it, grow it, dig it up and pick put the biggest roots, replant it, plant the
> > next years seed  and repeat the process for at least 3-5 years you will have
> > in your garden a 'period' white or red carrot. :-)

Ciorstan continued: 
> This, Lord Ras, is true-- however it is very easy for the new scavenger 
> to mistake hemlock for Queen Anne's Lace out in the wild, with very 
> unhappy results.
> 
> If memory serves, there's also a water parsnip variety (remember the 
> thread on skirrets a while back?) that is highly toxic as well.

>From my old, scorched, stained copy of _Peterson's Field Guide
to Edible Wild Plants_:

Wild carrot, Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota)
A widespread _hairy-stemmed_ biennial.  Flower clusters flat-topped,
lacy; often with a singule _purple_ flower in center.  Old clusters
resemble _birds' nests_.  Bracts _stiff, 3-forked_.  Root white, smells
of carrot.  2-3 ft.... Prepare the first-year roots like garden
carrots.  CAUTION:  Early leaves resemble Poison Hemlock (below) but
stalks _hairy_.

Poison hemlock (Conium maculatum)
A tall, much-branched biennial.  Stems stout, hollow, grooved, _spotted
with purple_.  Ill-scented when bruised, unpleasant to taste.  Root
white, carrotlike.  2-6 ft.... WARNING: small amounts may cause
paralysis and death.  Similar to Wild Carrot (above) but leafstalks
_hairless_.

Water-hemlock, Spotted Cowbane (Cicuta maculata)
Tall, branching, with numerous flower clusters.  Stem smooth, _streaked
with purple_, chambered.  Leaves twice- or thrice-compound, often
reddish-tinged.  Root with fat tuberlike branches, white.  3-6 ft....
WARNING: Our deadliest species.  A single mouthful can kill.

Water parsnip (Sium sauve)
Similar to Water-hemlock (above), but stems _strongly ridged_ and leaves
_once-compound_ with 3-7 pairs of lance-shaped leaflets.  Basal leaves
very finely cut, often submerged.  Roots slender.  2-6 ft.... USE: roots
as cooked vegetable.  Boil until tender.  CAUTION: Because of its close
similarity to Water-hemlock (above), Water-parsnip is best ignored as a
possible food plant.

Does that make everything crystal clear?

					mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib
                                                 Stephen Bloch
                                           sbloch at panther.adelphi.edu
					 http://www.adelphi.edu/~sbloch/
                                        Math/CS Dept, Adelphi University
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