Fact-rich article about the history of domesticated carrots. The parts I found most interesting:

Fact-rich article about the history of domesticated carrots. The parts I found most interesting:

* carrots have 50 percent more carotene today than they did in 1970

* wild carrots are white

* orange carrots were bred into existence in the 1500s. Before that domesticated carrots were purple or yellow

* color does not correlate with flavor, so the colorful ones were probably domesticated either for aesthetic reasons or to be able to tell them apart from wild ones

Originally shared by University of Wisconsin-Madison

How do carrots get their orange color? And how can this help us improve other crops?

http://news.wisc.edu/carrot-genome-paints-picture-of-domestication-could-help-improve-crops