iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Wild Cabbage

Brassica oleracea
Enlarge picture
Wild Cabbage plants

Wild Cabbage plants
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Plantae
Division:Magnoliophyta
Class:Magnoliopsida
Order:Brassicales
Family:Brassicaceae
Genus:Brassica
Species:B. oleracea
Binomial name
Brassica oleracea
L.


Brassica oleracea or Wild Cabbage, is a species of Brassica native to coastal southern and western Europe, where its tolerance of salt and lime but intolerance of competition from other plants typically restricts its natural occurrence to limestone sea cliffs.

Wild B. olearacea is a tall biennial plant, forming a stout rosette of large leaves 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 spike 1–2 m 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 and Roman times, when is known to be a well-established garden vegetable. Theophrastus mentions three kinds of this species: a curly-leaved, a smooth-leaved, and a wild-type.[1] It has been bred into a wide range of cultivars, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and more, some of which are hardly recognisable as being members of the same species. It is one of the most important human food crop plants. According to the Triangle of U theory, B. oleracea is very closely related to five other species of the genus Brassica.

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.

The cultivars of B. oleracea are grouped by developmental form into seven major cultivar groups, of which the Acephala Group remains most like the natural Wild Cabbage in appearance: Some (notably brussels sprouts and broccoli) contain high levels of sinigrin which is thought to help prevent bowel cancer.

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

Enlarge picture
Several cultivars of Brassica oleracea, including Kale, Brussels sprouts, Savoy, and Chinese kale

References

1. ^ Daniel Zohary and Maria Hopf, Domestication of plants in the Old World, third edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 199.

External links

Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. Scientific classification also can be called scientific taxonomy, but should be distinguished from folk taxonomy, which lacks scientific basis.
..... Click the link for more information.
Plantae
Haeckel, 1866[1]

Divisions

Green algae
  • Chlorophyta
  • Charophyta
Land plants (embryophytes)
  • Non-vascular land plants (bryophytes)

..... Click the link for more information.
Magnoliophyta

Classes

Magnoliopsida - Dicots
Liliopsida - Monocots

The flowering plants or angiosperms are the most widespread group of land plants. The flowering plants and the gymnosperms comprise the two extant groups of seed plants.
..... Click the link for more information.
Magnoliopsida

Magnoliopsida is the botanical name for a class of flowering plants. By definition the class will include the family Magnoliaceae, but its can otherwise vary, being more inclusive or less inclusive depending upon the classification system being
..... Click the link for more information.
Brassicales
Bromhead

Families

See text.

The Brassicales are an order of flowering plants, belonging to the eurosids II group of dicotyledons under the APG II system.
..... Click the link for more information.
Brassicaceae
Juss.

Genera

See text.

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae, also known as the crucifers, the mustard family or cabbage family is a family of flowering plants (Angiospermae).
..... Click the link for more information.
Brassica

Species

See text.

Brassica (Brás-si-ca) is a genus of plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards.
..... Click the link for more information.
binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. The system is also called binominal nomenclature (particularly in zoological circles), binary nomenclature (particularly in botanical circles), or the binomial classification system.
..... Click the link for more information.
Carolus Linnaeus (Carl von Linné)

Carl von Linné, Alexander Roslin, 1775. Currently owned by and hanging at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
..... Click the link for more information.
Brassica

Species

See text.

Brassica (Brás-si-ca) is a genus of plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards.
..... Click the link for more information.
Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
..... Click the link for more information.
For sodium in the diet, see salt.


Sodium chloride, also known as common salt, table salt, or halite, is a chemical compound with the formula NaCl.
..... Click the link for more information.
Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound, with the chemical formula CaCO3. It is a common substance found as rock in all parts of the world, and is the main component of shells of marine organisms, snails, and eggshells.
..... Click the link for more information.
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate: CaCO3). Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or flint, as well as varying amounts of clay, silt and sand as disseminations, nodules, or layers
..... Click the link for more information.
The three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:
  • Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group.
  • Schoof-Elkies-Atkin algorithm
  • Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (IATA: SEA, ICAO: KSEA)
  • Sea Education Association

..... Click the link for more information.
cliff or bluff is a significant vertical, or near vertical, rock exposure. Cliffs are categorized as erosion landforms due to the processes of erosion and weathering that produce them. Cliffs are common on coasts, in mountainous areas, escarpments and along rivers.
..... Click the link for more information.
biennial plant is a flowering plant that takes two years to complete its lifecycle. In the first year the plant grows leaves, stems, and roots (vegetative structures), then it enters a period of dormancy over the colder months.
..... Click the link for more information.
leaf is an above-ground plant organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat (laminar) and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast (chlorenchyma tissue, a type of parenchyma) to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
The term ancient Greece refers to the periods of Greek history in Classical Antiquity, lasting ca. 750 BC[1] (the archaic period) to 146 BC (the Roman conquest). It is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western Civilization.
..... Click the link for more information.
Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea.
..... Click the link for more information.
Theophrastus (Greek: Θεόφραστος; 370 — about 285 BC), a native of Eressos in Lesbos, was the successor of Aristotle in the Peripatetic school.
..... Click the link for more information.
cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because it has desirable characteristics (decorative or useful) that distinguish it from otherwise similar plants of the same species. When propagated it retains those characteristics.
..... Click the link for more information.
cabbage (Brassica oleracea Capitata Group) is a plant of the Family Brassicaceae (or Cruciferae). It is herbaceous, biennial, and a dicotyledonous flowering plant with leaves forming a characteristic compact cluster.
..... Click the link for more information.
Broccoli is a plant of the Cabbage family, Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as the Italica Cultivar Group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli possesses abundant fleshy flower heads, usually green in colour, arranged in a tree-like fashion on
..... Click the link for more information.
Cauliflower is a cultivar group within Brassica oleracea, in the family Brassicaceae. It is an annual plant that reproduces by seed. Typically, only the head (the white curd) is eaten while the stalk and surrounding thick, green leaves are discarded.
..... Click the link for more information.
Agriculture (from Agri Latin for ager ("a field"), and culture, from the Latin cultura "cultivation" in the strict sense of "tillage of the soil". A literal reading of the English word yields "tillage of the soil of a field".
..... Click the link for more information.
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 the three common vegetables and oilseed crop species that we know today.
..... Click the link for more information.
Brassica

Species

See text.

Brassica (Brás-si-ca) is a genus of plants in the mustard family (Brassicaceae). The members of the genus may be collectively known either as cabbages, or as mustards.
..... Click the link for more information.
Vitamin C or L -ascorbate is an essential nutrient for higher primates, and a small number of other species. The presence of ascorbate is required for a range of essential metabolic reactions in all animals and in plants and is made internally by almost all organisms,
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter