Wild carrot, Queen Anne's Lace, Daucus carota  L.; Apiaceae is widely available. We use the florets in salads to get a healthy dose of bioflavonoids to improve distal circulation to brain, extremities and improve heart function. Be certain you know the difference between hemlock and carrot.
	You can let your garden carrots go to seed by not pulling the first year's roots. Collect seeds for seasoning and medicinal uses. (More)

Native American Uses:  Wild carrot root may be cooked with other wild foods to add carrot like flavor.  The inside is usually tough and woody, but the outer flesh is softer edible.  Scrape, peel outer tissue off woody stem and eat soft tissue.  First year plant most tender.  Medicine:  Whole plant infused and used as a wash for wounds, sores, a hair rinse.  Flowers:  used in infusion and consumed for treating diabetes.  Roots decocted to balance blood chemistry, as a tonic.  Decoction of roots used as a wash and consumed for treating acne. Root decoction said to be an appetite stimulant.  Also, root decoction used as diuretic to increase urination.  Leaves: Micmac used leaves to purge bowels.

Carrot, Queen Anne's lace

Daucus carota L.

Description:  First year plant prostrate and spreading, feather like leaves, deeply cut, inconspicuous in deep weeds (torn leaf has odor of carrot).  Second year plant (biennial) bears white florets in round umbels on three to four foot stems (carrot scented flowers). 

Location:  Nationwide in meadows, waste ground, roadsides, vacant lots.

Food:  Wild carrot, Queen Anne's Lace, is widely available. We use the florets in salads to get a healthy dose of bioflavonoids that may improve distal circulation to brain, extremities and improve heart function.  Seeds are used for flavoring.  First year’s raw root is eaten in salads, juiced, or cooked as a vegetable.  Second year root (Queen Anne's Lace) may be eaten but is woody and only flavors the food it is cooked with.  Outer root flesh may be nibbled off the woody center after it has been softened by cooking.

CAUTION: Be certain you know the difference between hemlock and carrot.

Traditonal Uses:  Pioneers and moderns use the oil in skin creams as an anti-wrinkle agent.  The whole plant was infused and used to wash wounds, sores, and as a hair rinse.  Flowers infused and drink consumed for treating diabetes.  Roots decocted to balance blood chemistry, as a tonic.  Decoction of roots used as a wash and consumed for treating acne. Root decoction said to be an appetite stimulant.  Also, root decoction used as a diuretic to increase urination.  Micmac First People used leaves to purge bowels.

Modern Uses:  Carrot roots and leaves contain carotenoids helpful in preventing cancer.  Tea of whole plant and seeds used to treat urinary problems: cystitis, stones.  Seeds anti-flatulent.  Seed and root used to treat edema. Oil of seed used in many commercial skin products. Seeds are stimulating.  Carotenoid content of root may preserve eyesight and helpt prevent cancer.  Whole carrots (un-juiced) may help treat diabetes by lowering blood sugar (anti-diabetic).  Eating carrots may help reduce symptoms of gout (eliminates uric acid).

NOTES: Let garden carrots go to seed by not pulling the first year's roots. Collect second year seeds for seasoning and medicinal uses. Wild carrot root may be cooked with other wild foods to add carrot like flavor, but the core of the second year root is tough and woody.  A soft layer of edible tissue covers the woody core, scrape and peel this outer tissue from woody core and eat.  

Wildlife/Veterinarian:  Carrot roots and leaves are fodder for chickens, pigs, exotic birds, ungulates.