Cultivated Carrot

Also known as Garden Carrot, Domestic Carrot

Cultivated carrots grow as biennials, developing a dense basal rosette of feathery, bipinnate foliage during their first season while accumulating concentrated sugars and carotenoids in an enlarged taproot. If overwintered and allowed to complete their life cycle, they bolt in their second summer, sending up tall, branched stems crowned with flat-topped, lace-like white umbels that attract diverse beneficial insects. Centuries of selective breeding transformed the bitter, thin, woody taproot of wild ancestors into the crisp, sweet vegetable grown in gardens and farm fields worldwide.