From June to September, wild carrot opens flat, lacy heads made of hundreds of tiny white flowers. At the centre there is often a single dark red floret. Its purpose is still debated: one idea is that it looks like a small insect and draws others in to feed. As the seeds ripen, the head curls inwards into a cup, often called a bird's nest.

Its open flowers make nectar easy to reach, so they are visited by a wide range of insects, including hoverflies, beetles, bees and wasps. It thrives on dry, sunny, well-drained ground, such as chalk and limestone grassland, verges and old spoil, where thin soils keep taller plants at bay.

Wild carrot is the wild ancestor of the cultivated carrot, though its own root is thin, pale and woody. It also belongs to a family that includes deadly hemlock, so it is not recommended to pick and eat.

In North America and sometimes in Britain it is called Queen Anne's lace, from a legend that a queen pricked her finger while making lace, leaving a single drop of blood at the centre.