Shapes of Carrot Roots - World Carrot Museum

Examples of typical carrot root shapes. The Main Parts and Functions of the Carrot Root on this page.

Top row includes original European types; bottom two rows are major types grown worldwide today
common root shapes of carrot

Ernst Benary, (1819-1893) - Album Benary. (Erfurt) 1876 (image below)
Top row, left to right - 1. Long Orange Belgian, green top; 2. Transparent White; 3. Scarlet Intermediate; 4. Semi long Scarlet Obtuse, for forcing; 5. Long yellow; 6. Large White Belgian, green top;	Bottom row - 7. Earliest red Duwick, for forcing; 8. Long Red Erfurt; 9. Improved Long Red Altringham [sic]; 10. Long Red Surrey; 11. Semi-long Scarlet Nantes, or Stump-rooted; 12. Early Long Scarlet, short-leaved; 13. Earliest Scarlet French Horn

These photo (below) is a good representative sample of carrots, used in the 2014 research study entitled - New insights into domestication of carrot from root transcriptome analyses (Rong et al.: New insights into domestication of carrot from root transcriptome analyses. BMC Genomics 2014 15:895.)

For information here is the full classification of a carrot:

Kingdom Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass Rosidae
Order Apiales
Family Apiaceae – Carrot family
Genus Daucus L. – wild carrot P
Species Daucus carota L. ssp. sativus- domestic carrot

(It is generally accepted that domestic carrot is drawn from the wild variety)

Note - Some classifications show Umbelliferae rather than Apiaceae

Carrot Root Shapes