← Vegetables
🥕 Vegetables
Carrot
(Daucus carota subsp. sativus)
The patient root that sweetens after frost
🔍 How to identify it
Feathery, finely-divided fern-like leaves in a low rosette; hollow grooved flower stalk to 1 m in its second year with a flat white umbel that curls into a 'bird's nest'. Taproot orange (or purple/yellow by variety), tapering. Crushed foliage smells distinctly of carrot.
☠️ Look-alike & safety
⚠️ Wild carrot/Queen Anne's lace looks similar but the DEADLY poison hemlock (Conium) also resembles it — hemlock has purple-blotched HAIRLESS stems and a musty smell. Never eat a wild 'carrot' unless you are certain; grow from seed to be safe.
🤝 Companion planting
Plant near:
Keep apart:
dill
| Family | Apiaceae (carrot family) |
| Hardiness zone | 2-11 (annual) |
| Sun | Full sun |
| Water | Even moisture; erratic watering splits roots |
| Soil | Deep, loose, stone-free sandy loam — rocks make forked roots |
| Spacing | 5 cm apart, rows 30 cm |
| Sowing / starting | Direct-sow 2-3 weeks before last frost; slow to germinate (14-21 days) — keep surface damp |
| Harvest | 60-80 days; sweetest after a light frost converts starch to sugar |
| Common pests | Carrot rust fly (float-row-cover), aphids. Rotate — don't follow carrots with carrots. |
🧺 What it's good for
Root raw/cooked; tops edible as pesto/stock. High beta-carotene. Stores for months in damp sand.
Plant identification here is educational — never eat, forage, or medicate with a wild plant on the basis of a website alone. Many edible plants have toxic look-alikes. When in doubt, grow from known seed, or confirm with an expert before you harvest.