QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

My photos were taken along Skyline Drive.

The following is its story: 

Queen Anne of Great Britain was tatting white lace. (Tatting is the art of making lace by hand.) The beautiful white lace she was tatting became the white lacy flowers of the wild carrot plant. She pricked her finger and one drop of blood oozed out. This became the central dark red or purple sterile floret that is present on some, but not all, of Queen Anne's Lace flowers.

Legends disagree as to which Queen Anne was tatting such lovely lace. Some say it was Anne (1574 - 1619), the first Stuart Queen Anne, who was brought over from Denmark at fourteen years of age to be a Queen to King James of Scotland. Others argue it was Anne (1665 - 1714), the daughter of William and Mary, and the last monarch in the Stuart line. Both died in their forties.

Her lawn

looks like a meadow, 

And if she mows her place

She leaves the clover standing

And the Queen Anne's Lace.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay~

This is from one of my older blog posts.  We were on Skyline Drive.  Wherever we looked there were hundreds of these pretty wildflowers. The one above and below has a little visitor.  I thought the ant was special, it looked almost metallic.

It has another name besides Queen Anne's Lace and Wild Carrot.  It is also called Bees Nest, with a botanical name of Daucus carota.  It usually blooms mid and late summer and early fall.