A Second Look Follow up--Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace--Spot or No Spot
What's your experience?

My comments about the black spot in the middle of  a Queen Anne's lace bloom in a Second Look, 7-27-11, created several interesting conversations. I was surprised with the black spot because I had never seen one before and a friend said that all flowers she had seen were spotted.

I started wondering about this difference, so I began a very informal investigation. First, I asked several people what they thought a Queen Anne's lace flower looked like. Two people had seen some blooms with a dark spot in the middle and some without it. Four people had never seen the black spot. No conclusions from this survey except that I wasn't alone in my experiences.

Next, I carefully examined all of the Queen Anne's lace growing in my yard and found 29 plants that were spot free and 11 that had the dark spot in the middle. No conclusions once again except that the sample set of my yard was conducive to giving me the impression that Queen Anne's lace blooms are spot free.

After this, I did some internet research. Here I found that most places describe the flower as having a dark spot in the middle. Some say that they can sometimes be spot free. However, there was never any reason given for this difference except on a Virginia Tech weed identification site. Here they said that the spot occurs in the second year of maturity (they are biennials). Makes sense except I wonder why none of the other places mention this.

Anyway, my next step will be to wait until next year to see if any of my spotless flowers this summer will develop blooms with dark spots in the middle next summer. I'll let you know.