Ideas for community gardens < roots

There are many varieties of carrot that come in sizes from large to small. These are the 'pakistani' variety.

CARROT

Botanic name

• Daucus carota

Family

• Apiaceae

Growth form

• tapering tuber of variable length depending on variety
• biennial:
  • the plant produces the tuber in its first year
  • flowers and produces seed in the second year
• orange or yellow coloured tuber.

Edible part

• tuber
• eaten raw or cooked.

Cultivation

• there are many varieties of carrot, varying in size and colouration.

Propagation:

• from seed
• new plants can be sprouted by cutting of top of tuber and waiting until it sprouts, then planting

Centre of diversity

• probably eastern Mediterranean
• grown in imperial Rome and ancient Turkey
• yellow and purple varieties grown in Europe until the seventeenth century when the orange carrot was developed in Holland.

PAGE UPDATED... Wednesday, 16 January 2002