Carrot

The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a root vegetable, typically orange in colour, though heirloom variants including purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, Daucus carota, native to Europe and Southwestern Asia. The plant probably originated in Iran and was originally cultivated for its leaves and seeds.

The carrot is a biennial plant in the umbellifer family, Apiaceae. World production of carrots (combined with turnips) for 2022 was 42 million tonnes, led by China producing 44% of the total.

The characteristic orange colour is from beta-carotene, making carrots a rich source of vitamin A. A myth that carrots help people to see in the dark was spread as propaganda in the Second World War, to account for the reason of British pilots' ability to fight in the dark; the real explanation was the introduction of radar.

The word is first recorded in English around 1530 and was borrowed from the Middle French carotte, itself from the Late Latin carōta, from the ancient Greek καρωτόν (karōtón), originally from the Proto-Indo-European root *ker- ('horn'), due to its horn-like shape. In Old English, carrots (typically white at the time) were not clearly distinguished from parsnips. The word's use as a colour name in English was first recorded around 1670, originally referring to yellowish-red hair.

Daucus carota is a biennial plant. In the first year, energy is stored in the taproot to enable the plant to flower in its second year.

Soon after germination, carrot seedlings show a distinct demarcation between taproot and stem: the stem is thicker and lacks lateral roots. At the upper end of the stem is the seed leaf. The first true leaf appears about 10–15 days after germination. Subsequent leaves are alternate (with a single leaf attached to a node), spirally arranged, and pinnately compound, with leaf bases sheathing the stem. As the plant grows, the bases of the seed leaves, near the taproot, are pushed apart. The stem, located just above the ground, is compressed and the internodes are not distinct. When the seed stalk elongates for flowering, the tip of the stem narrows and becomes pointed, and the stem extends upward to become a highly branched inflorescence up to 60–200 cm (20–80 in) tall.

Most of the taproot consists of a pulpy outer cortex (phloem) and an inner core (xylem). High-quality carrots have a large proportion of cortex compared to core. Although a carrot completely lacking xylem is not possible, some cultivars have small and deeply pigmented cores; the taproot can appear to lack a core when the colour of the cortex and core are similar in intensity. Taproots are typically long and conical, although cylindrical and nearly spherical cultivars are available. The root diameter can range from 1 cm (3⁄8 in) to as much as 10 cm (4 in) at the widest part. The root length ranges from 5 to 50 cm (2 to 20 in), although most are between 10 and 25 cm (4 and 10 in).

Flower development begins when the flat meristem changes from producing leaves to an uplifted, conical meristem capable of producing stem elongation and a cluster of flowers. The cluster is a compound umbel, and each umbel contains several smaller umbels (umbellets). The first (primary) umbel occurs at the end of the main floral stem; smaller secondary umbels grow from the main branch, and these further branch into third, fourth, and even later-flowering umbels.