Mustard plant

Mustard Plant

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Mustard plant

For the prepared condiment, please see Mustard (condiment). For other uses of the term "mustard," see Mustard
Mustard

Mustard may refer to:...
.

Mustards are several plant species in the genera 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....
and Sinapis
Sinapis

Sinapis is a genus of plants in the family Brassicaceae. One of the species in this genus is White mustard . Black mustard is sometimes placed in this genus as well, but is more often placed in the related genus Brassica....
whose small mustard seed

Mustard seed

Mustard seeds are the small seeds of the various mustard plants. The seeds are about 2 mm in diameter, and may be colored from yellowish white to black....
s are used as a spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetable used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth....
and, by grinding and mixing them with water, vinegar or other liquids, are turned into the condiment

Condiment

In the United Kingdom, a condiment used to be confined to salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar. Use of the term condiment has broadened and now is generally considered to be any prepared edible Chemical substance or mixture, often Food preservation or Fermentation , that is added in relatively small quantities, most often at the table...
known as mustard.

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Do birds eat anything of the mustard plant

Encyclopedia

For the prepared condiment, please see Mustard (condiment). For other uses of the term "mustard," see Mustard
Mustard

Mustard may refer to:...
.

Mustard seed

Mustard seeds are the small seeds of the various mustard plants. The seeds are about 2 mm in diameter, and may be colored from yellowish white to black....
s are used as a spice

Spice

Condiment

Mustard oil

The term mustard oil is used for three different oils that are made from mustard seeds:* a fatty vegetable oil resulting from pressing the seeds,...
, and the edible leaves

Leaf vegetable

Leaf vegetables, also called potherbs, greens, or leafy greens, are plant leaf eaten as a vegetable, sometimes accompanied by tender Petiole s and shoots....
can be eaten as mustard greens.

Mild white mustard (Sinapis hirta
White Mustard

White mustard is an annual plant of the family Cruciferae. It is sometimes also referred to as Brassica alba or B hirta or yellow mustard....
) grows wild in North Africa

North Africa

North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, separated by the Sahara from Sub-Saharan Africa.Geopolitically, the United Nations subregion of Northern Africa includes the following seven countries or territories:...
, the Middle East

Middle East

File:GreaterMiddleEast1.pngThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, western Asia, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East....
and Mediterranean Europe and has spread farther by long cultivation

Cultivation

In agriculture, cultivation is the process of geting fater plants on arable land. It is usually associated with large-scale agriculture, as opposed to small-scale gardening....
; brown or Indian mustard (B. juncea
Brassica juncea

Brassica juncea, also known as mustard greens, Indian mustard and leaf mustard, is a species of mustard plant. Sub-varieties include Southern Giant Curled Mustard, which resembles a headless cabbage such as Kale, but with a distinct horseradish-mustard flavor....
), originally from the foothills of the Himalaya, is grown commercially in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, Canada

Canada

Canada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean....
and the US

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
; black mustard (B. nigra
Brassica nigra

Brassica nigra is an annual plant Weedy species plant cultivated for its seeds, which are commonly used as a spice. The plant is believed to be native to the southern Mediterranean region of Europe, and has been cultivated for thousands of years....
) in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is a country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city....
, Chile

Chile

Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
, the US

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
and some European countries. Canada grows 90% of all the mustard seed for the international market. The Canadian province of Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan

Saskatchewan is a prairie provinces in Canada, which has an area of 588,276.09 square kilometres and a population of 1,015,895 , mostly living in the southern half of the province....
produces almost half of the world's supply of mustard seed.

In addition to the mustards, the genus Brassica also includes 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 ....
s, 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....
, rapeseed

Rapeseed

Rapeseed , also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rapaseed and canola, is a bright yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae ....
and turnips.

Although some varieties of mustard plants were well-established crops in Hellenistic and Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
times, Zohary and Hopf note that "there are almost no archeological records available for any of these crops." Wild forms of mustard and its relatives the radish

Radish

The radish is an Eating root vegetable of the Brassicaceae family that was domesticated in Europe in pre-Roman Empire times. They are grown and consumed throughout the world....
and turnip

Turnip

The turnip is a root vegetable commonly grown in temperate climates worldwide for its white, bulbous taproot. Small, tender, varieties are grown for human consumption, while larger varieties are grown as fodder for livestock....
can be found over west Asia and Europe, suggesting that their domestication took place somewhere in that area. However, Zohary and Hopf conclude, "Suggestions as to the origins of these plants are necessarily based on linguistic considerations."

There has been recent research into varieties of mustards that have a high oil content for use in the production of biodiesel

Biodiesel

Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of long chain alkyl esters, made by transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat , which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles....
, a renewable

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tidal energy and geothermal energy—which are Renewable resource ....
liquid fuel similar to diesel

Diesel

Diesel or diesel fuel in general is any fuel used in diesel engines. The most common is a specific fractional distillation of petroleum fuel oil, but alternatives that are not derived from petroleum, such as biodiesel, biomass to liquid or gas to liquid diesel, are increasingly being developed and adopted....
fuel. The biodiesel made from mustard oil has good cold flow properties and cetane ratings

Cetane number

Cetane number or CN is a measurement of the combustion quality of diesel fuel during compression ignition. It is a significant expression of diesel fuel quality among a number of other measurements that determine overall diesel fuel quality....
. The leftover meal after pressing out the oil has also been found to be an effective pesticide

Pesticide

A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest .A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent , antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest ....
.

An interesting genetic

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and Genetic variation in living organisms. The fact that living things inherit traits from their parents has been used since prehistoric times to improve crop plants and animals through selective breeding....
relationship between many species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
of mustard has been observed, and is described as 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....
.

Mustard plant

Diseases

See Also