DOTLAN EveMaps

It is generally assumed that the eastern, purple-rooted carrot originated in Afghanistan in the region where the Himalayan and Hindu Kush mountains meet, and that it was domesticated in Afghanistan and adjacent regions of Russia, Iran, India, Pakistan and Anatolia. Purple carrot, together with a yellow variant, spread to the Mediterranean region and western Europe in the 11–14th centuries, and to China, India and Japan in the 14–17th centuries.

The western, orange carrot probably arose in Europe or in the western Mediterranean region through gradual selection within yellow carrot populations. The Dutch landraces Long Orange and the finer Horn types, first described in 1721, were an important basis for the western carrot cultivars grown at present all over the world.