A Survey of Queen Anne's Lace on Nantucket and an Assessment of its Effect on Native Pollination

Submitted in fulfillment of a 2015 Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative grant. Please refer to related identifiers for the peer reviewed publication of this work.

Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota, QAL) is a non-native plant species that was introduced to North America from Europe during the early colonial period. Its presence on Nantucket has been documented since at least the nineteenth century. Research in other plant systems has investigated whether native pollination was affected by the presence of a non-native, and the results have been mixed. Depending on the system a native may be negatively affected, may not be affected or may be positively affected, but there are characteristic features of natives that make them more susceptible to the effects on non-natives. As yet, there has been no survey of QAL on Nantucket, and no study known to the authors has investigated the effect of QAL on a native species. In June and July 2015 a survey of QAL populations was performed on properties owned and managed by the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, Linda Loring Foundation and Nantucket Islands Land Bank, as well as other, public properties. Following this, a pollination observation study was performed on QAL and a native species, Toothed White-top Aster (Sericocarpus asteroides, TWTA), as the native’s morphology and life history appeared to put it at risk of the effect of presence of QAL. Pollinators were observed for three hours per day and five days each for the two species individually and both species cohabitating together. Queen Anne’s Lace was found to be abundant across the island, with an average density of 12.2 plants/m2 and a high density of 109.4 plants/m2. While both plant species are generalist pollinated, QAL attracted 15 insect families and TWTA attracted only eight, the majority of each were flies and bees.