Carrots were originally purple, not orange.

The wild carrot domesticated in Central Asia around a thousand years ago produced roots that were purple or yellow, colored by anthocyanin and other pigments, not the bright orange we associate with carrots today. Purple and yellow carrots spread through the Middle East and into Europe for centuries before the orange variety became dominant.

Orange carrots, high in beta-carotene, emerged in Western Europe by around the 17th century through selective breeding of yellow varieties. They gradually outcompeted the older colors in commercial cultivation because of their sweeter taste and reliable color, so thoroughly that most people today assume orange is simply what a carrot looks like. Purple, yellow, white, and red carrots still exist and are sold as heirloom varieties.