Carrot is last native food at Christmas

Christmas dinner is an international evolutionary feast with only the carrot native to British soil, say scientists.

Global trade and domestication over thousands of years account for everything else, from turkey and bacon to potatoes and parsnips.

Professor Dave Hodgson, of the University of Exeter, said: “Of all the animals and plants that appear on the traditional Christmas dinner plate, only the carrot is a British native – and the carrot we eat bears almost no resemblance to its wild ancestor.”