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History of the Carrot Part Five -

The Road to Domestication.... AND the Colour Orange!

Chapters in the history rooms:
 

	History Part 1 - A Brief Timeline
	History Part 2 - Neolithic to AD 200 - Origins and development
	History Part 3 - AD 200 to 1500 - From Medicine to Food
	History Part 4 - 1500 to 1700 - Evolution and Improvement in the Renaissance
	History Part 5 - 1700 to date - Science & Enlightenment - the modern carrot evolves
	History of Carrot Colour - Explores, in some detail the theories of the road to domestication and the origin of Orange Carrots
	History in WW2 - Takes an in depth look of the role of carrots in World War Two, reviving its popularity
	Illustrations of Carrot in Ancient Manuscripts and Early Printed Books

Cultivation then Domestication

The Carrot has a somewhat complex and unclear history, surrounded by doubt and enigma and it is difficult to pin down when domestication took place. The wide distribution of Wild Carrot (Daucus carota, carota), the absence of carrot remains in archaeological excavations and lack of documentary evidence do not enable us to determine precisely where and when carrot domestication was initiated. Over thousands of years it moved from a small, tough, bitter and spindly root to a fleshy, sweet, pigmented unbranched edible root.  It transformed from its seeds being used as a medicine or aphrodisiac to the root being eaten in many different dishes. Even before the introduction of domesticated carrots, wild plants were grown in gardens as medicinal plants.

Unravelling its progress through the ages is complex and inconclusive, but nevertheless a fascinating journey through time and the history of mankind. It is considered that Carrots were originally purple with a thin root, then a mutant occurred which removed the purple pigmentation resulting on a new race of yellow carrots. A tale, probably apocryphal, has it that the orange carrot was bred in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century to honour William of Orange. Though the stabilised and domesticated orange carrot does date from the sixteenth century Netherlands, it is unlikely that honouring William of Orange had anything to do with it!

Throughout the Classical Period and the Middle Ages writers constantly confused carrots and parsnips. This may seem odd given that the average carrot is about six inches long and bright orange while a parsnip is off white and can grow 3 feet, but this distinction was much less obvious before early modern plant breeders got to work. The orange carrot is a product of the 16th and 17th centuries probably in the Low Countries. Its original colour varied between dirty white and pinkish purple. Both vegetables have also got much fatter and fleshier in recent centuries, and parsnips may have been bred to be longer as well. In other words early medieval carrots and parsnips were both thin and woody and mostly of a vaguely whitish colour. This being the case, almost everyone up to the early modern period can perhaps be forgiven for failing to distinguish between the two, however frustrating this may be for the food historian.

The Wild carrots have been present and used by Europeans since prehistoric times, but the garden carrot was unknown in Europe until the later Middle Ages. The Wild Carrot is the progenitor (wild ancestor) of the domestic carrot.  It is clear that the Wild Carrot and Domestic Carrot are not the same species and both co-exist in the modern world. It is a popular myth that domestic carrot was developed from Wild Carrot, probably because of its similar smell and taste. Botanists have failed to develop an edible vegetable from the wild root and when cultivation of garden carrots lapses a few generations, it reverts to another ancestral type, a species that is quite distinct.  In 1866 French botanist  M Vilmorin claimed to have produced a viable, cultivated carrot from wild plants in four generations. The experiment was never repeated and it is thought that the "wild" plants used had previously been hybridised in nature with cultivated carrots. (Banga 1957)

Domesticated Cultivated Carrot - Daucus carota, sub species sativus 

Wild carrot has existed across much of Europe and parts of Asia since Neolithic times, evidenced from seeds remains found in archaeological sites. The domestic carrot did not descend directly from the Wild Carrot, it is thought that in the experiment, in 1866, mutations from the wild varieties were erroneously selected and developed. No one has managed to repeat this experiment.  The primary origins of the domesticated carrot are Afghanistan and Central Asia. 

Carrot domestication took somewhat differing paths east and west of Central Asia.

Morphological characteristics lead to a division of the cultivated carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) into two botanical varieties: var. atrorubens and var. sativus (Small 1978).  Var. atrorubens refers to carrots originating from the East, exhibiting yellow or purple storage roots and poorly indented, grey-green, pubescent foliage. Var. sativus refers to carrots originating from the West and exhibiting orange, yellow or sometimes white roots, and highly indented, nonpubescent, yellow-green foliage (Small 1978). Many intermediate variants exist between these two types.

Before the first reports of orange carrots, purple root colour was apparently more popular in eastern regions, yellow more popular in the west. Eastern carrots tend to have less deeply divided leaflets with heavy leaf pubescence in some cultivars. While early flowering is unacceptable for any carrot production, eastern carrots have a greater tendency toward early flowering than western carrots, likely due to the somewhat warmer climates over the eastern production range.

Beyond the yellow, purple, and orange root colours, eastern carrots have long included red-rooted types while western carrots included white-rooted types. Carrot use has also varied across production areas, with a more predominant use as animal forage in the east but largely human use as a root vegetable in the west.

The origin of the cultivated carrot is clearly acknowledged to be purple in colour and in the Afghanistan region mainly because it was known to exist there well before reliable literature references or paintings gave evidence of Western carotene carrots. It is thought to have been in existence a couple of thousand years bc. (Brothwell)

It is thought the carotene carrot was domesticated in the regions around Turkey. The precise date is not known but thought to be before the 8th century. Traders and adventurers visiting Afghanistan took the carrot to other places including the Mediterranean countries.  It was probably the Romans who spread it into western Europe.

It has been suggested by several writers that a probable origin of the cultivated carrot is from a crossing of Wild Carrot (D Carota s. sp carota) and D Carota s. sp.maximus as many of the morphological characters of the cultivated carrot are intermediate between those of the afore mentioned sub species. (Thellung). 

This makes a lot of sense when the maximus grows in regions around the Mediterranean and an abundance of wild carota in Asia Minor (which is nearby). So it is possible that subspecies sativus might have originated there.  It is not clear where and when domestication took place, some commentators argue that if they did not originate in Afghanistan then they were first cultivated on the eastern Mediterranean, possibly Persia. 

What is clear is that the purple carrot existed in Central Asia and was brought west by the Arabs in about the 10th century.

Modern research has shown that there are two distinct groups of domesticated carrots from which the modern orange carrot derives, these are distinguished by their root colours and habits,  and the features of the leaves and flowers.

Morphological characteristics lead to a division of the cultivated carrot (Daucus carota subsp. sativus) into two botanical varieties: var. atrorubens and var. sativus (Small 1978).
 

Eastern/Asiatic types  - (var altorubens) with purple, black or yellow anthocyanin roots, sometimes yellow,  often branched, with pubescent leaves giving a grey green appearance and slightly dissected, and a tendency for early flowering. The centre of diversity and origin of Eastern cultivated carrots is quite well established and probably commenced in the Himalayan-Hindu Kush region (Kashmir-Afghanistan) and around Turkestan. (Vavilov and Heywood) In the 1920's and 30′s Vavilov, the Russian biologist and his team were doing research in the context of the improvement of cultivated plants in the service of Soviet Agriculture. They discovered species of volunteer and hybrid carrots in Afghanistan and Kashmir. Their appearance differs from wild carrots under the western climate : their roots are meatier, bear little ramifications and most of all, their colour ranges from purple and pink to orangy yellow.

Purple carrot, with a yellow variant,  then spread to the Mediterranean and Western Europe where they responded well to cultivation and selection.  Pigmentation of eastern carrots is caused by the water soluble anthocyanin which upon cooking gives the liquid a brownish purple colour.  (purple carrot page here) (black carrot page here) (white carrot here)

Western carrot types  - (var sativus) with yellow, orange or red, occasionally white carotenoid roots which are unbranched; they are also distinguished by less pubescent bright yellowish green slightly hairy leaves which are strongly dissected, and less tendency to bolt without extended exposure to low temperatures.

The centre for diversity for the western carrot is the Anatolian region of Asia Minor (Turkey).and Iran. (Vavilov and Heywood)

These reflect cultivation in the Asia Minor/ Mediterranean basin (Turkey) and temperate Europe and can probably be classed as a secondary centre of origin. The majority of modern commercial cultivars belong to this group.   The yellow/orange colour of western carrots is caused by the plastid-bounded pigment carotenoids, carotene and xanthophyll. White carrots contain only traces of pigment, mainly carotene and xanthophyll. (Ladizinsky)

The combination of leaf and root differences between eastern and western carrots suggest that western carrots were not selected directly from eastern, but rather hybrids between early Mediterranean carrots, white rooted carrots and wild carrots, or mutations.

There is some evidence that hybridisation did not play an essential part of the genesis of the cultivated carrot and that there is strong reason to believe that mutation followed by selection was the main factor. (Banga 1963)

THE ORANGE COLOUR CARROT

It is not clear where the Western orange carrot first appeared in its cultivated form, and several hypotheses exist. Some say that eastern carrot gave rise to the western carrot, although the intermediate stages are far from clear, and this is highly improbable as Eastern carrots contain no carotene, and there is no red carrot variety evidenced in Afghanistan.   It is suggested that crosses between the Eastern and Western carrots (and perhaps Wild forms) in the regions of Asia Minor where Europe, Asia and the Mediterranean meet, led to the formation of the orange rooted carrot sub species.   Turkey is often cited as the birthplace of the hybrids (or mutations) of the two groups.  As is the case today, spontaneous hybridisation between wild and cultivated carrots is quite frequent and natural.

The evolution of the orange carrot is confusing because the colour cited by various authors as either orange or yellow are not always reliable.

Why are carrots orange? - Carrots are orange because they absorb certain wavelengths of light more efficiently than others. Beta-carotene is the main pigment and is mainly absorbs in the 400-500nm region of the visible spectrum with a peak absorption at about 450nm. Carotenoids are one of the most important groups of natural pigments. They cause the yellow/orange colours of many fruit and vegetables. Though beta-carotene is most abundant in carrots it is also found in pumpkins, apricots and nectarines. Dark green vegetables such as spinach and broccoli are another good source. In these the orange colour is masked by the green colour of chlorophyll. This can be seen in leaves; in autumn, when the leaves die, the chlorophyll breaks down, and the yellow/red colours of the more stable carotenoids can be seen.

The most likely theory, in the opinion of the Carrot Museum, is that of Heywood 1983 -  After the comparison of several arguments of various highly speculative theories regarding the origin of the western orange carrot, he postulated its selection was from a genepool involving yellow rooted eastern carrots, cultivated white-rooted derivatives of wild carrot (Daucus carota subspecies carota, grown as medicinal plants since classical times) and wild unselected populations of adjacent Daucus Carota subspecies in Europe and the Mediterranean.    (V H Heywood - Relationship and Evolution in the Daucus Carota Complex - 1983)

Banga 1963  considers that the purple carrot spread into the Mediterranean in the 10th century where it is thought a yellow mutant appeared. The purple and yellow carrots both gradually spread into Europe in subsequent centuries. It is considered that the white carrot is also a mutant of yellow varieties.

Nevertheless cultivation of carrot in ancient times is still much disputed, mainly because daucus carota inter-crosses freely with other carota types, producing many and varied variations,

One theory proposes that orange was a characteristic of western carrots selected in Southern Europe or Asia Minor. A hybridisation theory supposes crosses between cultivated and wild germaplasm may have played a part in the enhanced pigment types. (Small 1978)  Another states that orange-rooted carrots occurred in the Mediterranean, around Turkey, where cultivated carrot diversity was particularly prominent. (Mackevic 1932).

Another theory, (Banga) which has subsequently been discounted, is that, on the basis of the appearance in European oil paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries is it considered that the Dutch selected and fixed orange varieties from yellow,  developing its colour from gradual selections of yellow carrots. The orange cultivars "late horn" and "half long horn" originated in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. (Banga and Simon).  Oddly white roots began to appear in pictures about the same time, perhaps implying that there had been little attempt by western Europeans to domesticate the wild, white rooted carrot until Moorish invaders came along with their coloured roots. 

A tale, probably apocryphal, has it that the orange carrot was bred in the Netherlands in the sixteenth century to honour William of Orange. Though the development and stabilisation of the orange carrot root does appear to date from around that period in the Netherlands, it is unlikely that honouring William of Orange had anything to do with it! Some astute historian managed to install the myth that the work an unexpected mutation was developed especially to thank King William I as a tribute to independence from Spain.  Dr T Fernie (Herbal Simples1875) reported  -  "The Dutch Government had no love for the House of Orange: and many a grave burgomaster went so far as to banish from his garden the Orange lily, and Marigold; also the sale of Oranges and Carrots was prohibited in the markets on account of their aristocratic colour."

It has been argued that the depiction of orange carrots in art works of the period proves that this was their first appearance. Art works alone are not considered to be good enough evidence as the colours used are not always true to type, and artists use colour effects in arranging their subjects. So in paintings, the differences between yellow and orange roots could be due to artistic features rather than to differences between cultivars. One can probably say with certainty that orange varieties were grown in the Netherlands at this time but this does not prove their origin in that locality. (Brandenberg)  Also, well before this time, there are clearly visible orange rooted carrots appearing in an ad 512 manuscript, an 11th century document, 14th century scripts and wall paintings in Italy in 1517. (see below) Also illustrations of various carrot colours appeared in many illuminated manuscripts, some of the surviving examples are shown here in a separate Museum page  - ancient manuscripts.
 

Here are a few examples of the depiction of coloured carrots in the 16th/17thC (click to see larger images - see more art works here).
Beuckelaer 1564	Beuckelaer 1566	Cotan 1602	Cotan 1602

First depictions of Orange

It is commonly held that the Dutch "invented" Orange carrots - However! - There are compelling arguments for a much earlier, near eastern origin -  the Byzantine illustration in the Dioscorides codex, drawn in 512 ad shows quite clearly carrot plants with a thick, orange coloured root, indicating that carotene cultivars already existed at that time. In fact it is considered very likely that this Vienna Codex was copied from a much earlier manuscript, perhaps an illustrated manuscript owned by Theodosius II.(408-450 A.D.)

An alphabetical recension of the Materia Medica of Dioscorides was illustrated in 512 (Juliana Anicia Codex) for presentation to Juliana Anicia, the daughter of Emperor Anicius Olybrius. A facsimile of this herbal with commentary by Otto Mazel has been published (Der Wiener Dioskurides, 1998, 1999). This most famous herbal includes 3 illustrations of cultivated and wild carrots.

The ad 512 images below show the first clear depictions of an orange rooted carrot. The figure left  is labelled Staphylinos Keras (or cultivated carrot) and portrays a deeply orange straight root with rosette of leaves that looks very close to our modern carrot. The centre figure, labelled Staphylinos Agrios (wild carrot) shows a plant in flower with slenderer orange roots. Far right, a figure labelled Gingidion, shows a flowering plant with an extremely fine yellow root and has been identified as Daucus gingidium. (Elaphoboscom (parsnip) is illustrated separately and therefore clearly distinguishes the two plants.)

Above  - The oldest known manuscript of Dioscorides work is the Juliana Anicia Codex (ca. 512 A.D.), housed in the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Listed as Codex Vindobonensis Medicus Graecus 1., it is better known as “Vienna Dioscorides,” the oldest and most valuable work in the history of botany and pharmacology.

Since an original copy of Dioscorides’s herbal has never been found, we cannot be certain that it included illustrations. It is certain, however, that, in 512 A.D., a Byzantine artist illustrated Dioscorides’s herbal for presentation to Juliana Anicia, the daughter of Emperor Anicius Olybrius. The artist seems to have based his work on illustrations from the Rhizotomicon of Crateuas of Pergamon (1st century B.C.).

Here are the words which accompany the Dioscorides image - In 1655 John Goodyer made this English translation of Dioscorides work from a manuscript copy, and in 1933 Robert T Gunther edited this. This was probably not corrected against the Greek, and this version of Goodyer's Dioscorides makes no such attempt either.:

The following modern interpretation made in June 2000 by Tess Anne Osbaldeston offers a more accessible text to today’s readers, as the ‘englished’ copy by Goodyer is generously endowed with post-medieval terminology.

In around 950, Ibn Sayyār al-Warrāq's produced a cookbook, the most comprehensive work of its kind. This traditional cookbook with more than 600 recipes using medieval ingredients and dishes from the luxurious cuisine of medieval Islam is also a rare guide to the contemporary culinary culture. He described the carrots used in his recipes thus:

Jazar - carrots. Of the cultivated varieties

1. Red-orange (jazar ahmar) carrot literally 'red', described as juicy, tender, and delicious. Poets compare it to carnelian, rubies, flames of fire, and coral reeds.

2. Yellow Carrot (jazar asfar), thicker and denser in texture than the red.

3. White Carrot (jazar abyad) similar to parsnips, aromatic, and deliciously sharp in taste. It is also described as having a pleasant crunch.

For more details on the cookbook and the 10th century recipes using carrots, there is a separate page in the Carrot museum. Here.

There is subsequently an 11th century manuscript (known as Pseudo.-Apuleius, Dioscorides) which also shows an orange rooted variety. Much more background information, including a full translation of the script together with a larger photo are included on a separate page here.

The late 11th century witnessed this intriguing manuscript named the Bodlean 130, Herbal of Pseudo-Apuleius, which illustrates carrot root, leaves and flower quite accurately with yellow-orange roots (left hand image). The script indicated that the Greeks called it stafi limagriam, others called it giger or eggon, the Romans called it udonaulion, the Carthaginians called it siccansade, the Calabria (Italy) called it pastinaca silvatica. The text states: “It grows in stony places and mounds; for women who suffer at childbirth and are not purged. With Herba pastinaca, cooked, together with the same water in which it was cooked, you take 30 peppercorns; mix together and give to drink; she will be purged. The same recipe as written above also works against toothache.” 

Two manuscripts, Ashmole 1462 labelled Pastinaca Silvatica (centre), a yellow/orange root and Ashmole 1431 labelled Pastinaca (right), a darker red root, contain essentially the same text.

The famous ceiling paintings in Villa Farnesina, Rome are dated to 1517. Ten illustrated episodes are located in spandrels surrounded by festoons of fruits, vegetables, and flowers, painted by Giovanni Martini da Udine (1487-1564) that include over 160 species of plants, all remarkably preserved.  The decorations are referred to as the Loggia of Psyche, based on the heavenly adventures of Cupid and Psyche. The work is important in the history of art and botany since it records, in full colour, species which existed at the time.  An orange carrot appears twice, together with a white parsnip. (more information in a separate Carrot Museum page here)

The 1551 edition of the "Libro de Agricultura" by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera has this to say about orange carrots.

One of the first written evidences of an orange carrot, particularly written in English (and therefore cannot be misinterpreted during translation) , written in English - 1677 - A Catalogue of Seeds, Plants &c Sold by Will’m: Lucas at the Naked Boy near Strand Bridge London (C. 1677) - Carrots, red, orang and yellow. (note: orang is how it was spelled) (full list here)

Another good reliable written evidence is the Hortus Medicus Edinburgensis – A Catalogue of plants in the Physical Garden at Edinburgh by James Sutherland intendent of said garden was published in 1683.This work makes reference to Orange, Red, Yellow and White carrots, together with the common Wild Carrot. It and also distinguishes them from Parsnip as a separate plant.(See extract here). This is a very useful record as it shows what actually existed in the botanic garden in Edinburgh.

Another reference appears in 1683 - John Reid's "Scots Gard'ner" full text here - "orenge carrot".  Reid also refers to "Of currans, the great red-Dutch, the white-Dutch, the great black."  Currans is the old Gaelic name for carrots.

1700 Systema horti-culturae of The Art of Gardening By John Worlidge, Gent list seeds available for sale, and again Orange Carrots receive a mention, here.

The Compleat Book of Husbandry, Volume three by Thomas Hale, 1758, which "contained rules for the whole business of farmer in cultivating, planting and stocking of land", gives a rare reference to the colours of carrots and orange in particular.

" Carrot - The root is long and thick, varying in colour from deepest orange to the palest straw...........There is a variety of colour in the roots of the carrot, the gardeners have hence made what they call three principal kinds: These they call, 1. The dark red carrot. 2. The orange carrot. And 3. the white carrot.  The first and last of these terms are somewhat improper, the first kind being only a very deep orange, and the other a very pale yellow. The first is most esteemed. The white kind is more common in France and Italy than here; and is the sweetest and finest flavoured of them all. The farmer is to cultivate not that which is best, but what people think so; and therefore he is to chuse the deep red, commonly called the Sandwich carrot."

Whatever the origins of orange carrots, the Long Orange Dutch cultivar,  is commonly held to be the progenitor of the orange Horn carrot varieties (Early Scarlet Horn, Early Half Long, Late Half Long). All modern, western carotene varieties ultimately descend from these varieties. The Horn Carrot derives from the Netherlands town of Hoorn in the neighbourhood of which it was probably developed. Horenshce Wortelen (carrots of Hoorn) were common on the Amsterdam market in 1610.  The earliest English seedsmen list Early Horn and Long Orange.

Bradley, in the Dictionarium Botanicum (1728) writes: "we have four or five Sorts of 'em, but I esteem the Orange-Carrot, and a kind which they have in the Isle of Wight, to be the best; besides which, we have the white Carrot, which one would not be without for the Rarity of it."  In Batty Langley's New Principles of Gardening (1728) he describes the two primary varieties of carrots this way: "Yellow Carrots…The root is of an Orange (rather than a limon) Colour." He also records that the root of this carrot is 22" long and 12 ½" in diameter, a huge root by today’s standards. . The red carrot he describes as; "its Root of a Blackish red without, and yellowish within; and is very seldom cultivated in our Gardens." - This is probably in reference to the purple carrot, which by this time is disappearing in England.

By 1763 carrots were classed as one of four varieties. The long orange, and the three varieties of Horn carrot; Late Half Long, Early Half Long and Early Scarlet Horn. The modern carrots all derive from these four types (Simmonds, Evolution of Crop Plants, 1995).

In 1768, Philip Miller writes in The Gardeners Dictionary; "the Orange Carrot is generally esteemed in London, where the yellow and the white Carrots are seldom cultivated. The dark red, or purple carrot, I take it to be a different variety from these, but it is much tenderer. The seeds were sent to from Aleppo (largest city in Syria). They succeeded very well but the roots were not as large as other carrots. They were tender and sweet with finer leaves."  (source Botanicus.org)

Carrots are of two sortes, the Orange and white, the former being generally used, tho' the latter is much the sweetest kind - John  Randolph, A Treatise of Gardening, 1793.

Some images of the carrots varieties which Vilmorin described in "The Vegetable Garden" in 1856 and give some idea of shapes and size of the "modern" carrots, developed by the Dutch :
 

The major sources of reference works quoted above are given below:

A complete list of reference material is listed on a separate page - here

V H Heywood - Relationship and Evolution in the Daucus Carota Complex - 1983

Studies in the Origin of cultivated plants NI Vavilov 1926

Agricultural Afghanistan 1924  NI Vavilov and DD BukinichVavilov 1924

J Smarrt & N W Simmonds Evolution of Crop Plants  1976

E Small A numerical taxonomy of the Daucus Carota Complex 1978

W A. Brandenburg Possible relationships between wild and cultivated carrots (Daucus carota L.) in the Netherlands 1981
Use of Paintings from the 16th to 19th Centuries to Study the History of Domesticated Plants 1986

V I Mackevic,. The carrot of Afghanistan. 1929

P W Simon Carrots and Related Umbelliferae 1999 (also various USDA publications authored by  PW Simon)

Carrot, Daucus carota L. In "Genetic Improvement of Vegetable Crops", (ed. G. Kalloo, B.O. Bergh), Pergamon Press, Oxford, U.K., pp. 479-484 (1993).

The manuscript is known as the Vienna Dioscurides, or Dioscurides Codex Vindobonensis Kew Gardens Library

O Banga, 1957 Origin of the European cultivated carrot.
1957 The development of the original European carrot material.
1963. Main types of the western carotene carrot and their origin.
1963: Origin and distribution of the western cultivated carrot.

D R. Brothwell, P Brothwell Food in Antiquity: A Survey of the Diet of Early Peoples 1968 ISBN 0801857406, 9780801857409

G Ladizinsky Plant Evolution Under Domestication 1998SBN 0412822105, 9780412822100

Full reference material is here.

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