Carrot
taproot of the domesticated carrot plant
The carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) is a root vegetable in the umbellifer family Apiaceae. Carrots are typically orange in colour due to their beta-carotene content, which makes them a rich source of vitamin A. Heirloom variants may be white, yellow, red, purple, or black. They are biennial plants.
The vegetable is a domesticated form of the wild carrot, native to Europe and Southwestern Asia. The domesticated plant probably originated in Iran where it was cultivated for its leaves and seeds. In 2022, world production of carrots (combined with turnips) topped 42 million tonnes, with China producing 44% of the total.
During the Second World War, a myth that carrots help people see in the dark was spread as propaganda to explain British pilots' ability to fight in the dark; the real explanation was the introduction of radar.
Etymology
The word is first recorded in English around 1530 and was borrowed from the Middle French carotte, itself from the 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 public source identifies “Carrot” as taproot of the domesticated carrot plant. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Carrot, taproot and domesticated.
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The date and method of observation matter as much as the stated conclusion, especially where classification or consensus has changed. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q81. The Library of Congress control number is sh85020481. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2022 and 1530.
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This entry incorporates text from “Carrot” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.