Bob

Wait a minute... QAL and carrots are the same thing?????


QAL aka The Wild Carrot aka Daucus Carota is a wild carrot, not the same
thing as a domesticated carrot, but a cousin. Here in Oregon it's classified
as a class C noxious weed. They are everywhere, but I've not noticed them
being that noxious. Maybe if I was a farmer I'd feel otherwise :-P. They
don't get very big unless you water them, like I did to a couple - then they
get huge. There are a rather pretty wildflower, IMNSHO. It's edible when
young, but I don't recommend eating it because there are other similar
plants that are poisonous. You might end up eating hemlock by mistake.

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/queen.html
http://oak.ppws.vt.edu/~sforza/weeds/dauca.html
http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/weeds.html

Matthew Reed wrote:
QAL aka The Wild Carrot aka Daucus Carota is a wild carrot, not the same
thing as a domesticated carrot, but a cousin. Here in Oregon it's classified
as a class C noxious weed. They are everywhere, but I've not noticed them
being that noxious. Maybe if I was a farmer I'd feel otherwise :-P. They
don't get very big unless you water them, like I did to a couple - then they
get huge. There are a rather pretty wildflower, IMNSHO. It's edible when
young, but I don't recommend eating it because there are other similar
plants that are poisonous. You might end up eating hemlock by mistake.

They're not too hard to identify. If you look carefully, QAL has the
one purple (or black) flower in the center of the flower head.
Water-Hemlock is all white, and it grows mostly in marshy ground.

If you want confusing, talk about making hemlock tea... In the PNW
thats made from the hemlock tree, and its unfortunately (and
confusingly) named.