Q 01/05

The carrot belongs to which plant family, alongside parsley, celery and dill?

A) Apiaceae

B) Brassicaceae

C) Solanaceae

D) Asteraceae

Answer · why

A) Apiaceae

The family is also called Umbelliferae, and it includes some deadly lookalikes, so foraging for wild carrot demands care.

Q 02/05

The domesticated carrot most likely originated in which region?

A) Mexico

B) Egypt

C) China

D) Iran

Answer · why

D) Iran

It is a tamed form of the wild carrot native to Europe and southwestern Asia; the earliest cultivated roots were purple and yellow, not orange.

Q 03/05

What colour were most cultivated carrots in the 10th century?

A) Orange

B) White

C) Purple

D) Red

Answer · why

C) Purple

Orange carrots did not appear until Dutch growers bred them in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Q 04/05

Growers in which country created the orange carrot?

A) Northern France

B) The Netherlands

C) Andalusia

D) East Anglia

Answer · why

B) The Netherlands

The popular tale that it was bred to honour William of Orange is, according to most authorities, unproven.

Q 05/05

Which pigment gives carrots their orange colour?

A) Beta-carotene

B) Lycopene

C) Anthocyanin

D) Chlorophyll

Answer · why

A) Beta-carotene

The pigment's very name comes from the Latin for carrot, carota, and it was first isolated from carrot juice in 1831.