Plant Name
Scientific Name: Daucus pusillus
Common Names: American Wild Carrot, Rattlesnakeweed, Rattlesnake-weed, Southwestern Carrot, Seedticks
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Annual
Growth Habit: Herb/Forb
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert
Flower Color: White
Flowering Season: Spring
Height: To 28 inches (71 cm) tall
Description: The tiny flowers are in lacy, flat-topped umbels. As they age, the flower umbels fold up into cups and then dry to a brownish color. The individual flowers are uniformly white and have 5 petals. The leaves are pinnately dissected with linear leaf segments, are often densely covered in bristly hairs, and when crushed, smell like carrot leaves. The stems are slender and usually unbranched. The plants have an enlarged taproot.
Special Characteristics
Edible – The roots are edible either raw or cooked.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Rosidae
Order: Apiales
Family: Apiaceae – Carrot family
Genus: Daucus L. – wild carrot
Species: Daucus pusillus Michx. – American wild carrot
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