Daucus carota NS6662 23Jul2020 PW
The flowerhead curls up when it goes to seed.
Daucus carota subsp. carota NS6762 5Aug2018 PW
The bracts below the flower head are also distinctive.
Daucus carota NS6662 23Jul2020 PW
The stem has lines of short, white bristle-like hairs.
Daucus carota NS6662 23Jul2020 PW
Daucus carota - Wild Carrot
This is sometimes part of a seed-mix but can persist.
Hairy, aromatic plant with a striate solid stem to 1m, but often shorter. Leaves are 2-4 pinnate with ovate lobes, serrate and ±hairy. Rays ±hairy. Bracts, many and pinnatisect or 3-sect with linear lobes. Bracteoles numerus, linear and scarious and ciliate. Flowers white often with one central flower purple. Fruits 2-3mm ovoid with long, hooked spines and short spines in different rows. The umbel contracts like a fist in fruit and becomes markedly concave. Two subspecies:
• Subsp. carota Wild carrot has grey-green leaves, root not swollen and whitish
• Subsp. sativa Carrot has bright green leaves and a swollen root, usually orange.