Wild Carrot - Daucus carota subsp. carota

Description

Short to tall plant, stem solid, often ridged. Leaves 2 or 3 pinnate feathery, with linear or lanceolate segments, the uppermost often bract like. Flowers white, the central one of the umbel sometimes purple, 2 mm, the umbels with numerous rays which become remarkably contracted in fruit. Bracts conspicuous, usually three lobed. Fruit with short spines. Tap root is white.

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Bracts pinnately divided and appearing feathery; fruits flattened and with spiny ridges

Habitat

Rough grassland, on well drained soils.

When to see it

June to August.

Life History

Annual or biennial.

UK Status

Fairly common in Britain.

VC55 Status

Quite common in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 178 of the 617 tetrads.

In the current Checklist (Jeeves, 2011) it is listed as Native, locally frequent

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Wild Carrot
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Apiales
Family:
Apiaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
176
First record:
24/08/1996 (Steve Woodward)
Last record:
27/08/2023 (Grimes, Martin)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

10km squares with records

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