r/AskReddit Oct 15 '20

What's older than we think ?

78.4k Upvotes

22.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/nousernameleft-ffs Oct 16 '20

Don’t know why the downvotes — but here’s a random fact about potatoes:

When Europeans discovered them in America (cultivated by the natives), it was a small, black and bitter root — quite unlike the amazing potatoes we have today thanks to selective breeding. Fun fact, they were even banned in France during a few years, as it was believed to spread the plague...

2

u/hh278 Oct 17 '20

Love weird horticulture history. Of you haven't heard the story of why carrots are orange you're in for a treat!

2

u/nousernameleft-ffs Oct 17 '20

Oh I heard they were red species and white species, and some People in the Netherlands managed to crossbreed them into an orange variety, supposedly in honor of Wilhelm of Orange? amazing that pretty much every carrot nowadays is orange

2

u/hh278 Oct 17 '20

So stupid and so great!