Rattlesnake-weed

Daucus pusillus, commonly known as American wild carrot or rattlesnake-weed, is a slender annual herb in the family Apiaceae native to western and southern North America, from British Columbia south to Baja California and east across the southern United States. It grows from a small whitish taproot, producing erect bristly-hairy stems 15 to 80 centimeters tall. The leaves are mostly basal and on the lower stem, finely two- or three-times pinnately divided into narrow segments, giving them a delicate fernlike appearance. Small white five-petaled flowers are borne in compact compound umbels, the rays of which curve inward in fruit to form a tight concave 'bird's nest' cup, as in the related Queen Anne's lace. The fruit is a small ovoid bristly schizocarp covered in hooked prickles that cling readily to fur and clothing. It grows in dry open ground, grasslands, oak savanna and chaparral edges, flowering in spring and early summer.