Brassica oleracea

Brassica oleracea
Wild cabbage plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Brassicaceae
Genus:	Brassica
Species:	B. oleracea
Binomial name
Brassica oleracea L.

Brassica oleracea is a plant species that includes many common foods as cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, savoy, kohlrabi, and gai lan.

In its uncultivated form, it is called wild cabbage, and is native to coastal southern and western Europe. Its high tolerance for salt and lime, and its intolerance of competition from other plants typically restrict its natural occurrence to limestone sea cliffs, like the chalk cliffs on both sides of the English Channel,^[1] and the windswept coast on the western side of the Isle of Wight.

Wild B. oleracea is a tall biennial plant that forms a stout rosette of large leaves in the first year. The leaves are fleshier and thicker than other Brassica species—an adaptation that helps it store water and nutrients in its difficult growing environment. In its second year, it uses the stored nutrients to produce a flower spike 1 to 2 metres (3–7 ft) tall with numerous yellow flowers.

Cultivation and uses

B. oleracea has become established as an important human food crop plant, 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. A diet rich in cruciferous vegetables (e.g., cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower) is linked to a reduced risk of several human cancers.^[2][3]

Researchers believe it has been cultivated for several thousand years—but its history as a domesticated plant is not clear before Greek and Roman times, when it was a well-established garden vegetable. Theophrastus mentions three kinds of rhaphanos (ῤάφανος):^[4] a curly-leaved, a smooth-leaved, and a wild-type.^[5] He reports the antipathy of the cabbage and the grape vine, for the ancients believed cabbages grown near grapes would impart their flavour to the wine.^[6] It has been bred into a wide range of cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collards, and kale, some of which are hardly recognisable as being members of the same genus, let alone species.^[7] The historical genus of Crucifera, meaning "cross-bearing," may be the only unifying feature beyond taste.

Several cultivars of Brassica oleracea, including kale, Brussels sprouts, savoy, and Chinese kale

Origins

According to the Triangle of U theory, B. oleracea is very closely related to five other species of the genus Brassica.^[8]

Jersey cabbage can be cultivated to grow quite large, especially in frost- free climates.

Growing head of B. oleracea Botrytis Group at Hooghly near Bandel in West Bengal, India

The cultivars of B. oleracea are grouped by developmental form into seven major cultivar groups, of which the Acephala ("non-heading") group remains most like the natural Wild Cabbage in appearance:

• Brassica oleracea Acephala Group – kale and collard greens
• Brassica oleracea Alboglabra Group – kai-lan (Chinese broccoli)
• Brassica oleracea Botrytis Group – cauliflower, Romanesco broccoli, and broccoflower
• Brassica oleracea Capitata Group – cabbage
• Brassica oleracea Gemmifera Group – brussels sprouts
• Brassica oleracea Gongylodes Group – kohlrabi
• Brassica oleracea Italica Group – broccoli

In places such as the Channel Islands and Canary Islands where the frost is minimal and plants are thus freed from seasonality, some cultivars, known as Jersey cabbages, can grow up to three meters tall. These "tree cabbages" yield fresh leaves throughout the year, are perennial, and do not need to be destroyed at harvest as with a normal cabbage. Their woody stalks are sometimes dried and made into walking sticks.^[9]

History

Cabbage in 1569.

With the advent of agriculture and the domestication of wild crop plants, the peoples of the northern Mediterranean began cultivating wild cabbage. Through artificial selection for various phenotype traits the emergence of variations of the plant with drastic differences in looks took only a few thousand years. Preference for leaves, terminal bud, lateral bud, stem and inflorescence resulted in selection of varieties of wild cabbage into the many forms present today.^[10]

Impact of preference^[11]

• The preference for the eating of the leaves led to the selection of plants with larger leaves being harvested and their seeds planted for the next growth. Around the fifth century BC, the formation of what we now know as kale had developed.
• Preference led to further artificial selection of kale plants with more tightly bunched leaves, or terminal bud. Somewhere around the first century AD emerged the phenotype variation of Brassica oleracea that we know as cabbage.
• Phenotype selection preferences in Germany led kale down another evolutionary pathway. By selecting for fatter stems the variant plant known as kohlrabi emerged around the first century AD.
• Further selection in Belgium in lateral bud led to the Brussels sprout in the 18th century.
• European preference emerged for eating immature buds, selection for inflorescence. By the 15th century AD, cauliflower had developed leading also to the emergence of broccoli in Italy about 100 years later.

Medicinal Use

The Lumbee tribe of North Carolina have traditionally used the leaves of Brassica oleracea in medicine that is believed to have cleansing qualities, as well as a mild laxative, anti-inflammatory, and treatment for glaucoma and pneumonia.^[12]

Cultivars

Cultivar	Image	Name
Wild cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. oleracea
Cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. capitata f, alba
Savoy cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. capitata f, sabauda
Red cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. capitata f, rubra
Cone cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. capitata f, acuta
Kai-lan		Brassica oleracea var. alboglabra
Collard greens		Brassica oleracea var. viridis
Jersey cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. longata
Ornamental Kale		Brassica oleracea var. acephala
Kale		Brassica oleracea var. sabellica
Lacinato kale		Brassica oleracea var. palmifolia
Perpetual kale		Brassica oleracea var. ramosa
Marrow cabbage		Brassica oleracea var. medullosa
Tronchuda kale		Brassica oleracea var. costata
Brussels sprout		Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera
Kohlrabi		Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes
Broccoli		Brassica oleracea var. italica
Cauliflower		Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Romanesco broccoli		Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Broccoli di Torbole		Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Broccoflower		Brassica oleracea var. botrytis x italica
Broccolini		Brassica oleracea var. italica × alboglabra

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Brassica oleracea.

• PROTAbase on Brassica oleracea (Brussels sprouts)
• PROTAbase on Brassica oleracea (cauliflower and broccoli)
• Video Overview of Brassica oleracea: from Untamed Science

Brassica oleracea
Brassica oleracea	Acephala group Broccoflower Broccoli Broccoli sprouts Broccolini Brussels sprout Cabbage Cauliflower Collard greens Gai lan Kale Kohlrabi Red cabbage Romanesco broccoli Savoy cabbage Spring greens
See also	List of cabbage dishes