“Carrots were originally purple before being selectively bred to be orange by the Dutch.”

Wild carrots started off as either white or pale yellow, but changed to purple and yellow when people first domesticated the vegetable almost 5,000 years ago in the Persian Plateau area... Yellow carrots in the Western group probably mutated into more orange hues, which farmers then selectively planted... The orange variety grew very well in [Dutch] climates and environments, better than purple and yellow.

“Purple carrots were common in central Asia along with yellow carrots,” Iorizzo said. “Both were brought to Europe, but yellow carrots were more popular, likely due to their taste.” Orange carrots made their appearance in western Europe in about the 15th or 16th century. The orange carrot may have resulted from crossing a white and yellow carrot, Iorizzo said. “This study basically reconstructed the chronology of when carrot was domesticated and then orange carrot was selected,” he said. “Orange carrot could have resulted from white and yellow carrot crosses, as white and yellow carrots are at the base of the phylogenetic tree for the orange carrot.” The study also adds further evidence that carrots were domesticated in the 9th or 10th century in western and central Asia.

It is thought that the carrot first came from Afghanistan sometime around the 7th Century AD, when they were originally purple! ... The orange carrot is thought to have originated in 16th century Holland where the original red, purple, black, yellow, and white varietals were hybridised to today’s bright orange.

During the 16th and 17th centuries...Dutch growers became obsessed with selective breeding. They took those yellow carrot varieties and got to work. Through careful selection, they created carrot lines that were loaded with beta-carotene (that’s your orange color) and had way less bitterness. Two specific Dutch varieties, ‘Long Orange’ and ‘Early Scarlet Horn,’ became the gold standard.

The carrot was probably first cultivated in Asia, and these types of carrot are called Daucus carota sativus var. atrorubens or anthocyanin carrots. The roots are mainly purple or almost black [...] It was from these yellow carrots that the modern orange carrots were developed. And it was the Dutch who did most of the horticultural work involved.

Historical botanical records and genetic studies confirm wild carrots were white/yellow, domesticated to purple/yellow around Persia/Central Asia ~1000 BCE; orange varieties developed in 16th-17th century Netherlands from yellow mutants via selective breeding for better yield and taste, not political symbolism (primary sources: Vilmorin's vegetable garden histories, modern DNA analysis in Annals of Botany).

Researchers tend to agree that the orange carrot we know today was derived over millennia from a wild variety common to the Middle East and North Africa as far back as 5000 years ago, but carrots in ancient times were pale in color... Stolarczyk concedes that 16th-century Dutch farmers likely developed orange carrots in an effort to create a sweeter variety.

Thousands of years ago wild carrots (Daucus carota) came in a singular color. They were purple with white inside. Domestication began in either Afghanistan or Turkey around 900 AD... Fast forward another 600 years, and through much more artificial selection and hybridization, the Netherlands gave us the orange carrot.

... orange carrot is actually a genetic outlier, not the original form. Dutch farmers in the 1600s selectively bred carrots to become more orange ...

Carrots used to be white, so how did they become orange and why? In this week"s short video, Ben plays detective as he unveils the mystery ...

Legend has it that Dutch growers in the 17th century cultivated orange carrots as a tribute to William of Orange... However, according to Carrot Museum, it is more likely that Dutch growers cultivated the orange carrot through selective breeding as a sweeter and less bitter variety than its yellow counterparts.