Queen Anne's Lace

It’s that time of year again—or, perhaps, just a few days past absolute peak for this hardy ground-cover, so royally named. Last year’s post on this subject has more of the naming conventions for those who wish to know. The link is here.

Queen Anne's Lace

Our ground cover is Queen Anne’s Lace. It’s a very vigorous and persistent plant the name of which I only learned this morning. In England it is known as wild carrot or bishop’s lace. That royal name, Queen Anne's Lace, is used here in the democratic United States. In Latin, formally, Daucus carota.

This is the time of the plant’s glory—late May to early June. The collage shows ours in the yard, then in the sunroom from close up, finally as Brigitte has arranged it to give our sunroom table one of its ever-changing aspects this time of year. Unfailing, serene, and royally disdainful of the human horrors that disfigure the public sphere of mind, Queen Anne’s Lace reminds me to rise above it all.

A note. When it comes time to identifying plants—and I have to start with an image—I became aware of the limitations of the digital world. I can’t just give Google a picture and ask for its name. A human intermediary is unavoidable.