The id definite? Can you post a picture?

Sorry if re- comment - but yeah it is. Will try to post pics. Didn't see my comment to yours. So thanks for reply.

I also believe it is know as wild carrot- however I have never planted a carrot like this.

I just asked because it seems odd for Daucus carota to be such a problem in a cultivated area since it isn't perennial. It would have to have been allowed to flower unbridled last year to really take over a bed. I get the occasional seedling but they are easy to id and whip out pronto. The flowers look like Aegopodium podagraria which is a real menace and I was wondering if that was what you actually had.

Queen Annes Lace is a plant that normally grows in poor and dry soils. There is, however, a similar plant, Water Hemlock, that prefers a moister, richer soil.

So the first thing to do is properly identify what it is and look closely at the soil.

Queens Annes Lace is a very good plant for a large number of beneficial insects in the garden, so eliminating it may not be a good thing to do.

kimmq is kimmsr

It is Queen Anne's lace. Your right that it has become a pest because I was unable due to physical problems to keep it under control the last two summers. Will try to get a pic up. It is not in flower now so will only be of the leaves. I don't mind it out back by the woods but I want to eradicate it from my garden areas so I can at least see what was originally planted there.

Looked up water hemlock - it is not that. Anyhow here are the pics. Around here it's called Queen Anne's Lace. Hope pics go through.

wow- looked up Aegopodium podagraria and I do have that planted in a corner but that kind of stays in its place- it has the variegated green and white leaves. Why is that worse? This isn't

that though. Probably should get rid of that too?

There are three plants that are commonly known as Queen Anne's Lace (which illustrates the problem with using common names): Daucus carota
Ammi majus
Anthriscus sylvestris

The flowers of the three are similar, but the leaves are not. I think that you have the third, but please take a look at each of these plants on the internet and decide which one you've got. If you want to, post these pictures on the Name That Plant forum, and the experts there will tell you which you've got.

And floral is one of the ace experts there, so take that as a true id.

Well- ok whatever one it is I need to get rid of it . Guess that means digging out as much as I can and replanting the good stuff and covering up any bare ground with black plastic. was kind of hoping it was the biennial type and I could have just chopped down and just covered it. Funny I can't find the green and white variegated kind that I did plant which I thought was the bishops weed and the green was the QAL. Guess I'll be digging this out forever since any piece left will resprout. Thanks for the input.

I know this is really old, but I just found it now. The pictured plants look nothing like the aegopodium I have in my yard, but I have the variegated version so might not be able to recognize the plain green one. An easy way to distinguish mine from QAL is the height (along with variegation). Aegopodium is quite short - 8" out of bloom, maybe 15" when blooming. Queen Anne's lace is TALL - I have 4 foot stalks and flowers in one of my perennial beds and they are one of the weeds wrecking it. It's fall now and they've gone to seed, so the seeds are sticking to my clothes like crazy. I have found NOTHING so far telling how to get it out of a flower bed. Hand pulling? Yeah, if you can recognize them when they're small. Herbicide? Not when they are in the middle of my irises and daylilies. Mowing? Uh... no. If I can yank them all out this fall - which would be tough because the only way is to dig up all the irises, daylilies and other plants in the bed - I suspect a pre-emergent herbicide might be the best thing, because undoubtedly a lot of seeds will fall into the soil while the plants are being removed. By the way, aegopodium can be controlled by putting metal edging underground around them, as it does spread by roots/rhizomes, but while the variegated variety is gorgeous, plain green would be deadly dull and boring.

The pictures posted 8 years ago are 100% Aegopodium podagraria. The variegated form is different only in the variegation and being slightly less aggressive. The leaves are completely different from Daucus carota and it is a pernicious perennial. D carota is an annual.

If you want a firm id on the plant causing problems for you I would suggest starting a new thread on the Name that Plant Forum and posting pictures. You could start controlling it by removing the flowers. Once it's gone to seed it's too late. You could also learn to identify it when it's young by observing the garden closely in spring.

Okay, I believe you. I looked up multiple pictures of the solid green and variegated kind. I was correct that the shape of the entire plant is different - much more mounded instead of higgledy-piggledy. The flowers are similar. According to what I read, aegopodium IS a member of the carrot family, and the flowers do somewhat look like Queen Anne's Lace flowers, but smaller. Also, the solid green version is described as "weedy" and grows much taller in some areas than others - up to 30". The variegated version, if restrained, runs around 12-18" and is quite attractive, especially if you keep up with deadheading.

Yes, Aegopodium is in the same family as Daucus carota, the Apiaceae. The flowers are superficially similar although the Daucus has a red or purple spot in the center of the umbel, has ferny leaflets behind the flower head and curls round into a basket like shape as it fades. Aegopodium is much less floriferous too. The leaves of the two plants are very different.

I have never seen a 30" tall Aegopodium and I've known the plant all my life.