Daucus carota

Daucus carota, whose common names include wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae, native to temperate regions of Europe and southwest Asia, and naturalized to North America and Australia.

Domesticated carrots are cultivars of a subspecies, Daucus carota subsp. sativus.

Description

The wild carrot is a herbaceous, somewhat variable biennial plant that grows between 1 and 2 feet (30 and 60 cm) tall, roughly hairy, with a stiff, solid stem. The leaves are tripinnate, finely divided and lacy, and overall triangular in shape. The flowers are small and dull white, clustered in flat, dense umbels. They may be pink in bud and may have a reddish flower in the centre of the umbel. The lower bracts are three-forked or pinnate, which distinguishes the plant from other white-flowered umbellifers. As the seeds develop, the umbel curls up at the edges, becomes more congested, and develops a concave surface. The fruits are oval and flattened, with short styles and hooked spines. The dried umbels detach from the plant, becoming tumbleweeds. The function of the tiny red flower, coloured by anthocyanin, is to attract insects.

Wild Carrot (band)

Wild Carrot is an American Roots music duo from Cincinnati, Ohio. With a foot in traditional American music, their repertoire branches in diverse directions: from award-winning original tunes to swing, blues and traditional songs, using guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, concertina, and vocals. The group is made up primarily of husband and wife Pam Temple and Spencer Funk. With additional instrumentation and vocals they expand to “Wild Carrot and Their Roots Band”, performing as a trio, quartet or larger group.

In 2003 and again in 2006 the duo was selected by the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile to represent the United States as Cultural Ambassadors to Chile. Their visit included performances at Expoinglés, a Santiago festival that promotes English as a second language in Chile and celebrates the cultures of several English-speaking countries.

The sound of the group has at times drawn comparison to folk duos, but Wild Carrot has a sound all their own. Temple provides the songs, soprano vocals, and guitar accompaniment, while Funk adds fingerstyle guitar, mandolin, and harmony vocals. On recordings they have been joined by Don Porterfield (bass), Chris Rosser (percussion & vocals), and others, including Brandt Smith and Brenda Wolfersberger. Their 2008 recording, I've Heard That Song Before, is a collaboration with pianist Hank Ross (Red Onion Jazz Band) and features many of the swing standards the duo regularly performs in a more traditional jazz setting. In 2011, they released Crowd Around the Mic: Live, recorded over two live performances and funded largely by fan contributions. The intimacy of the performance translates to the disc with all the charm that characterizes their shows and their music in general.