Carrot Seeds

Carrot seeds are not true seeds in a botanical sense but are dry fruits called 'schizocarps'. The Carrot is not a fruit in the common understanding, so there are no seeds inside or on the

carrot. The part of the carrot that you eat grows in the ground, usually with the wide end of the carrot just at the surface of the soil. The round mark you can see on that end of the carrot is where the leaves used to be - a big soft bunch of deep green leaves that look a

bit like a fern.

The Carrot plant is biennial and develops, in its second year, 'umbels' which are groups of flowers which produce seeds. D. carota var sativus is a herbaceous biennial plant grown as an annual. In the first year, seedlings emerge with two strap-like leaves which are the cotyledons, followed by rosettes of doubly compound leaves arising from the crown.

Carrot seeds are not true seeds in a botanical sense but are dry fruits called 'schizocarps'. The Carrot is not a fruit in the common understanding, so there are no seeds inside or on the carrot. The part of the carrot that you eat grows in the ground, usually with the wide end of the carrot just at the surface of the soil.

Then the carrot is ready, it sends up a tall stem, which produces flowers, and eventually seeds. The seeds are very small, on average between 1 and mm in length and brownish is colour. Depending on the variety there are approximately 8000 seeds in half an ounce of seeds, so there are approximately 250,000 in a pound, roughly 2500 would fill a teaspoon.