| Raphanobrassica | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Brassicales |
| Family: | Brassicaceae |
| Genus: | Brassicoraphanus Sageret |
| Synonyms | |
|
Raphanobrassica |
|
Brassicoraphanus is the name for all the intergeneric hybrids between the genera Brassica (cabbages, etc) and Raphanus (radish). The name comes from the combination of the genus names. Both diploid hybrids and allopolyploid hybrids are known and share this name.
Early experimental crosses between species of these two genera had been sterile or nearly sterile, but large-scale experiments by Soviet agronomist Georgi Dmitrievich Karpechenko using Raphanus sativus and Brassica oleracea were remarkable because some of the plants produced hundreds of seeds. The second generation were allopolyploids, the result of gametes with doubled chromosome numbers.[1][2][3] As Karpechenko realized, this process had created a new species, and it could justifiably be called a new genus, and proposed the name Raphanobrassica for them (but the earlier name Brassicoraphanus has priority. Plants of this parentage are now known as radicole.[4]
Two other fertile forms of Brassicoraphanus are known by the following informal names:
Currently, it is thought that a great part of the flowering plants have some hybridization and polyploidization among their ancestors.[6]