The carrot is a root vegetable, usually orange in colour, though purple, red, white, and yellow varieties exist. It has a crisp texture when fresh.

The most commonly eaten part of a carrot is a taproot, although the greens are edible as well. It is a domesticated form of the wild carrot native to Europe and southwestern Asia.

The domestic carrot has been selectively bred for its greatly enlarged and more palatable, less woody-textured edible taproot. It is a biennial plant that grows a rosette of leaves in the spring and summer, while building up the stout taproot, which stores large amounts of sugars for the plant to flower in the second year.