(Daucus carota), biennial species of plant in the parsley family (Apiaceae). It is an ancestor of the cultivated carrot. It grows to 1.5 m (5 feet) tall. The bristly plant has divided leaves, umbels (flat-topped clusters) of white or pink flowers with a single dark-purple flower in the centre, an enlarged and edible but acrid root, and ribbed fruits with sharp spines. It is occasionally cultivated as an ornamental. Eurasian in origin, it is now almost cosmopolitan in range.