Cultivated carrot (purple and yellow varieties)
Zanahoria cultivada (variedades púrpura y amarilla)
- Date
- c. 900 · confidence low
- Place
- Afghan highlands (Hindu Kush), Afghanistan
- Credited to
- Farmers of eastern Iran and Central Asia
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
The cultivated carrot root, purple or yellow, appears in the 10th century in texts from Persia, Afghanistan and Central Asia, where the greatest diversity of wild carrot lies. The modern orange variety was selected in the Netherlands around 1600.
The centre of domestication (Persia, Afghanistan or Central Asia) and the date are uncertain; it should not be identified with the roots called «carrot» (staphylinos) in Greek and Roman texts, which were probably other plants.
What it led to
- spread through the Islamic world to the Iberian Peninsula and the Mediterranean
- the orange carrot in the Netherlands and its worldwide diffusion
- use as human food and fodder