Daucus carota, Daucus maxima, Wild carrot, Bird's nest,
Bishop's lace, Queen Anne's lace,
Hebrew: גזר קיפח, Arabic: يرب رزج

Scientific name:		Daucus carota L.subsp. maximus (Desf.) Ball
Synonym name:		Daucus maximus Desf.
Common name:		Wild carrot, Bird's nest, Bishop's lace, Queen Anne's lace
Hebrew name:		גזר קיפח
Arabic name:		يرب رزج Jizr Bery
Plant Family:		Umbelliferae / Apiaceae, סוככיים

Life form:		Annual
Spinescence:		Fruits
Stems:		Up to 100 cm tall, erect, branching, grooved, rough-hairy or bristly;
Leaves:		Alternate, rosette, dissected twice or more
Flowers:		White; terminal, compound umbels, a whorl of several 3- to 5-branched bracts at the base of each compound umbel; and a single flower arising from the centre of the compound umbel is often dark purple
Fruits / pods:		Fruits grayish to brownish with several rows of spines by which they cling to clothing and animal fur
Flowering Period:		April, May, June, July, August
Habitat:		Herbaceous plant communities of the Mediterranean territory
Distribution:		Mediterranean Woodlands and Shrublands, Semi-steppe shrublands, Shrub-steppes, Montane vegetation of Mt. Hermon
Chorotype:		Mediterranean
Summer shedding:		Ephemeral

Derivation of the botanical name: Daucus, the Latin name for carrot. Galen (Claudius Galenus of Pergamum (131 - 201 CE)), called it Daucus to distinguish the Carrot from the Parsnip. carota; the name Carota for the garden Carrot is found first in the Roman writings of Athenaeus, of Naucratis in Egypt, Greek rhetorician and grammarian (2nd and beginning of the 3rd century CE.), and in a book on cookery by Apicius Czclius in 230 CE. Queen Anne's lace, earned its common name from a legend that tells of Queen Anne of England (1655-1714) pricking her finger—drawing a drop of blood—while sewing lace. The Hebrew name גדר, gezer, Arabic equivalent: جَزَر (Jezre), and in Aramaic: Gazra. The standard author abbreviation L. is used to indicate Carl Linnaeus (1707 – 1778), a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, the father of modern taxonomy. The standard author abbreviation Desf. is used to indicate René Louiche Desfontaines (1750 – 1833), aa French botanist. The standard author abbreviation Ball is used to indicate JOHN BALL (1818 - 1889) , an English botanist. The role of the dark central floret is a puzzle. Darwin (1809-1882, British naturalist and author, developer of the theory of evolution by natural selection) believed that the modified central flower served no functional or adaptive importance to the species and therefore was a remnant of an ancestral past. Some concluded that the dark florets can act as an insect attractant for some insect groups by acting as an insect mimic, and that they are adaptive, in contrast to the speculations of Darwin. By far the most frequent visitor to Daucus carota inflorescences was the beetle Anthrenus verbasci (Varied carpet beetle), which comprises approximately 97% of insect visitors. Anthrenus verbasci is a small, dark, rounded beetle (1.7–3.5 mm in length) and is similar in size and shape to the dark central floret of Daucus carota (diameter 2–3.2 mm). Anthrenus verbasci appear to graze primarily on pollen. See the list of Medicinal herbs in Israel, the parts used and their medical uses to treat various diseases.