Keeping up with the Crucifers
A Deep Dive with Brassica oleracea and the Cabbage family.
HAVE YOU MET THE WILD MUSTARD PLANT?
Did you know some of your favourite greens come from different parts of the same wild plant? The diversity of the wild mustard plant or Brassica oleracea is phenomenal, making it the progenitor of six healthy vegetables of the cabbage family, scientifically called Brassicaceae family. These vegetables are collectively known as the cruciferous vegetables. If you find the green broccoli on your plate uninteresting and it doesn't motivate you to eat healthy, you might want to rethink your choices!
How does Brassica oleracea give six different vegetables?
Artificial selection is a process in which humans select for or against certain features in plants or animals and reproduce them. For example, the human may allow only organisms with the desired feature to reproduce. This leads to that particular trait being evolved in that organism and is analogous to natural selection, meaning humans artificially select a trait instead of the nature.
Artificial selection has given us nearly all the vegetables we eat today, most of which bear only a passing resemblance to the plants from which they came. Over the centuries, farmers have domesticated various wild plant varieties while focusing on amplifying their different valuable structures for human consumption. One such plant is Brassica oleracea, the wild mustard plant, bred for its flowers, buds, stems, and leaves producing the extensive variety of plants we know today as the “Cole crops.” The wild mustard plant helps produce vegetables which are also known as the cruciferous vegetables.
Vegetables derived from Brassica oleracea
Broccoli is characterized by fleshy green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. Derived from the artificial selection of stem and flowers.
Brussels sprouts are characterised by green buds growing around the stem of the plant with big leaves on the top. It is a form of cabbage derived from the artificial selection of lateral buds called “sprouts.”
Kohlrabi is characterised by a swollen edible stem of the plant. The young tender leaves may be eaten as greens, and the thickened stem is usually served as a cooked vegetable. It is derived from the artificial selection of the stem.
Cabbage is characterised by a round shaped head and is composed of superimposed compacted layers of leaves which come in many different shapes, sizes, colors, and textures. It is derived from the artificial selection of the terminal leaf bud.
Kale is characterised by a rosette elongated leaves with wavy to frilled margins, at the top of the stem. It is derived from the artificial selection of leaves from the plant Brassica oleracea.
Cauliflower is characterised by its edible masses of partially developed flower structures and fleshy stalks. It is derived from the artificial selection of the terminal cluster of flowers which form a firm, succulent “curd,” or head, that is an immature inflorescence (cluster of flowers).
