 Like carrots, parsnips are native to Eurasia and have been eaten there since ancient times.Zohary and Hopf note that the archaeological evidence for the cultivation of the parsnip is "still rather limited", and that Greek and Roman literary sources are a major source about its early use.They warn that "there are some difficulties in distinguishing between parsnip and carrot (which, in Roman times, were white or purple) in classical writings since both vegetables seem to have been sometimes called "pastinaca", yet each vegetable appears to be well under cultivation in Roman times".