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Brassica oleracea

 
Brassica Oleracea

 
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Brassica oleracea
 
 
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Brassica oleracea or Wild Mustard, is a species of Brassica
Brassica

Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family . The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards....
 native to coastal southern and western Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, where its tolerance of salt
Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula SodiumChlorine....
 and lime
Calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CalciumCarbonOxygen3. It is a common substance found as Rock in all parts of the world, and is the main component of seashells, snails, and eggshells....
 and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 sea
SEA

See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
 cliff
Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them....
s.

Wild B. olearacea is a tall biennial plant
Biennial plant

A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months....
, forming a stout rosette of large leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 in the first year, the leaves being fleshier and thicker than those of other species of Brassica, adaptations to store water and nutrients in its difficult growing environment.






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Brassica oleracea or Wild Mustard, is a species of Brassica
Brassica

Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family . The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards....
 native to coastal southern and western Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, where its tolerance of salt
Sodium chloride

Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula SodiumChlorine....
 and lime
Calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula CalciumCarbonOxygen3. It is a common substance found as Rock in all parts of the world, and is the main component of seashells, snails, and eggshells....
 and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 sea
SEA

See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
 cliff
Cliff

In geography and geology, a cliff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are formed as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them....
s.

Wild B. olearacea is a tall biennial plant
Biennial plant

A biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its biological lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots , then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months....
, forming a stout rosette of large leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 in the first year, the leaves being fleshier and thicker than those of other species of Brassica, adaptations to store water and nutrients in its difficult growing environment. In its second year, the stored nutrients are used to produce a flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
 spike tall bearing numerous yellow flowers.

Cultivation and uses

Although B. oleracea is believed to have been cultivated for several thousand years, its history as a domesticated plant is not clear before Greek
Ancient Greece

The term Ancient Greece refers to the period of History of Greece lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca. 1100 BC and the Dorian invasion, to 146 BC and the Roman Republic conquest of Greece after the Battle of Corinth ....
 and Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 times, when it is known to have been a well-established garden vegetable. Theophrastus
Theophrastus

Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eressos in Lesbos Island, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. His interests were wide-ranging, extending from biology and physics to ethics and metaphysics....
 mentions three kinds of this species: a curly-leaved, a smooth-leaved, and a wild-type. It has been bred into a wide range of cultivar
Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
s, including cabbage
Cabbage

The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
, broccoli
Broccoli

Broccoli is a plant of the cabbage family Brassicaceae .It is classified as the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli possesses abundant arboreal, luscious, fleshy, flower heads, usually green in color, arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible, sturdy, meaty stalk....
, cauliflower
Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed....
, and more, some of which are hardly recognisable as being members of the same genus. The historical genus of crucifera
Cruciferous vegetables

Edible plants in the family Brassicaceae are termed Cruciferous vegetables. For a botanical description of plants in this family , see Brassicaceae....
, meaning four-petalled flower, may be the only uniting feature beyond taste. It has become established as an important human food crop
Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
 plants. According to the Triangle of U
Triangle of U

The Triangle of U is a theory about the evolution and relationships between members of the plant genus Brassica. It says that the genomes of three ancestral species of Brassica combined to create three of the common contemporary vegetables and oilseed crop species....
 theory, B. oleracea is very closely related to five other species of the genus Brassica
Brassica

Brassica is a genus of plants in the mustard family . The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards....
.

The plant is used because of its large food reserves, which are stored over the winter in its leaves. It is rich in essential nutrients including vitamin C
Vitamin C

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient for humans, a large number of simian species, a small number of other mammalian species , a few species of birds, and some fish....
.

The cultivars of B. oleracea are grouped by developmental form into seven major cultivar groups
Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
, of which the Acephala Group remains most like the natural Wild Cabbage in appearance:
  • Brassica oleracea Acephala Group
    Acephala Group

    The Acephala Group is a cultivar group for the species Brassica oleracea. It includes the following:* kale* collard greens* spring greens...
     - kale
    Kale

    Kale or Borecole is a form of cabbage , green in color, in which the central leaves do not form a head. It is considered to be closer to wild cabbage than most domesticated forms....
     and collard greens
    Collard greens

    Collards are various loose-leafed cultivars of Brassica oleracea , the same species that produces cabbage and broccoli. The plant is grown for its large, dark-colored, greens and as a garden ornamental, mainly in Brazil, Portugal, the Southern United States, many parts of Africa, Montenegro, Spain and in Kashmir....
  • Brassica oleracea Alboglabra Group- Chinese broccoli
    Kai-lan

    Kai-lan, also known as Chinese broccoli or Chinese kale, is a slightly bitter leaf vegetable featuring thick, flat, glossy blue-green leaves with thick stems and a small number of tiny, almost vestigial flower heads similar to those of broccoli....
  • Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group - cauliflower
    Cauliflower

    Cauliflower is one of several vegetables in the species Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed....
    , Romanesco broccoli
    Romanesco broccoli

    Romanesco broccoli is an Eating flower of the species Brassica oleracea and a variant form of cauliflower.Romanesco broccoli was first documented in Italy in the sixteenth century....
     and broccoflower
    Broccoflower

    Broccoflower is an Eating plant of the species Brassica oleracea. The edible portion is the immature flower head of the plant. The word broccoflower is used to describe two different forms with light green heads....
  • Brassica oleracea Capitata Group - cabbage
    Cabbage

    The cabbage is a leafy garden plant of the Family Brassicaceae , used as a Leaf vegetable. It is a herbaceous, biennial plant, dicotyledonous flowering plant distinguished by a short stem upon which is crowded a mass of leaves, usually green but in some varieties red or purplish, forming a characteristic compact, globular cluster ....
  • Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group - brussels sprout
    Brussels sprout

    The Brussels sprout of the Brassicaceae family, is a cultivar of Brassica oleracea cultivated for its small leafy green buds, which resemble miniature cabbages....
    s
  • Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group - kohlrabi
    Kohlrabi

    Kohlrabi is a low, stout cultivar of the cabbage that will grow almost anywhere. It has been selected for its swollen, nearly spherical, Sputnik program-like shape....
  • Brassica oleracea Italica Group - broccoli
    Broccoli

    Broccoli is a plant of the cabbage family Brassicaceae .It is classified as the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli possesses abundant arboreal, luscious, fleshy, flower heads, usually green in color, arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible, sturdy, meaty stalk....


Some (notably brussels sprouts and broccoli) contain high levels of sinigrin
Sinigrin

Sinigrin is a glucosinolate which belongs to the family of glucosides found in some plants of the Brassica family such as brussels sprouts, broccoli and the seeds of black mustard to name but a few....
 which may help prevent bowel cancer
Colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or large bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon , rectum and Vermiform appendix....
.

For other edible plants in the family Brassicaceae, see cruciferous vegetables
Cruciferous vegetables

Edible plants in the family Brassicaceae are termed Cruciferous vegetables. For a botanical description of plants in this family , see Brassicaceae....
.

Brassica Garden

External links

  • : Food blog devoted to kale and other seasonal produce