On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of carrot stew recipe page across from the article title. This article is about the cultivated vegetable. Not to be confused with Karat.

The carrot is a biennial plant in the umbellifer family, Apiaceae. At first, it grows a rosette of leaves while building up the enlarged taproot. A depiction labeled “garden” carrot from the Juliana Anicia Codex, a 6th-century AD Constantinopolitan copy of Dioscorides’ 1st-century Greek pharmacopoeia. The facing page states that “the root can be cooked and eaten.

Both written history and molecular genetic studies indicate that the domestic carrot has a single origin in Central Asia. When they were first cultivated, carrots were grown for their aromatic leaves and seeds rather than their roots. Three different types of carrots are depicted, and the text states that “the root can be cooked and eaten”. Another copy of this work, Codex Neapolitanes from late 6th or early 7th century, has basically the same illustrations but with roots in purple.

The plant was introduced into Spain by the Moors in the 8th century. In the 10th century, roots from West Asia, India and Europe were purple. The modern carrot originated in Afghanistan at about this time. There are many claims that Dutch growers created orange carrots in the 17th century to honor the Dutch flag at the time and William of Orange.

Outwardly purple carrots, still orange on the inside, were sold in British stores beginning in 2002. Daucus carota is a biennial plant. In the first year, its rosette of leaves produces large amounts of sugars, which are stored in the taproot to provide energy for the plant to flower in the 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.