SC - Carrots and Turnips-Period?

[Decker, Terry D.]

 Giant and Wegman's currently carries burgundy and 
> orange ones in 
> >  regular stock and I am anticipating white ones at both 
> stores this fall.
> >  
> >  Ras
> 
> Are these naturally occuring colors, or are they 
> synthetically/genetically 
> altered?  
> 
> Balthazar of Blackmoor

The colors are natural and were known in medieval times.  

The carrot appears to originate in the vicinity of Afghanistan and was
probably brought into Europe as a domestic plant.  From the writings of
various Roman authors, European carrots appear to have been white.  There is
speculation that the colored carrots represent a variety or varieties
imported from Asia and bred to European carrots.

The Roman authors did not differentiate between the carrot and the parsnip,
referring to them as pastinaca.

Platina does differentiate between them, calling carrots, cariota.  To quote
him, "Doctors say the parsnip is white while carrot is red or almost black."

The paintings of carrots I have seen tend to be orange or a dark reddish
orange.

Bear