Why does the top green part of a carrot rot off but the carrot itself stays perfectly fine?
In: Biology
The actual carrot root portion is a storage device–storing plant energy until conditions are right to re-grow. As a storage device, it’s designed to remain relatively rot free and intact under adverse conditions–that means such measures as a “waxy” sealed outer skin to help prevent it from drying out are included in it’s makeup.
The tops are not needed so are expendable by nature. No reason to build in any storage function–and the main root portion basically sucks all the energy it can out of the top and let’s it die back.
When conditions are right, the root will start shoving energy back into a new top and it will regrow, with the root portion getting kind of skanky woody and weak in most cases, basically sacrificing to make top (because that’s where seeds are made so that is the real goal of the whole process)
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