Question
Hi Viktoria,
I'm not sure if these species fall in Zone 6 or not, so I'm sorry if I'm asking you a question you can't answer.  

My question regards Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota), which I would like to harvest seeds from, for medicinal purposes. I am afraid of mistaking it for the poison hemlocks (Conium maculatum and Cicuta sp.).  I *feel* confident in my QAL ID - or at least the plant that I've always called QAL - but in this case, there is no room for error!  So my question is, what field marks would you use to positively ID QAL from the hemlocks?

Thanks for any pointers you can give!
Sara Kate

Answer
The poison hemlocks are much larger and more robust plants with, if I remember correctly, more coarsely divided leaves.  The one foolproof method, however, by which you can positively ID QAL is by odor: all parts of the plant, but particularly the root, smell distinctly like carrots!  It is, after all, the wild carrot.