Blog post number 8 A matter of selection

     Cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, wild mustard, brussels sprouts, and kohlrabi are all the same species (Brassica Oleracea) and they all look so different from each-other. Brassica oleracea in it's natural form is an herb that mostly grows in the coastal Mediterranean region. It's leaves are very nutritious so farmers started to breed it to enhance specific parts of the plant. This plant has been selectively bread so that parts of it are much larger than they were before .


     Cabbage is an enhancement on the terminal bud, a cabbage head is a particularly large terminal bud surrounded by tightly packed leaves

a head of cabbage with the core (terminal bud) removed

     Another trait that has been enhanced in another B.oleracea breed is the auxillary buds of brussels sprouts. The reason that brussels sprouts look like very small cabbages is because the auxillary buds are smaller versions of the terminal buds. brussels sprouts are packed in a spiral down a thick stem. Brussels sprouts also have a core just like cabbage but theirs is much smaller.

a brussels sprouts plant with it's buds tightly spiraled down the stem

     Kohlrabi is artificially breed for lateral meristem growth so that it's stem becomes bulbous and swollen. it looks very much like a turnip as it's name is kohl(cabbage) rabi (german for turnip).

a very large kohlrabi stem kind of like a turnip above ground.

Another version of brassica oleracea is broccoli/cauliflower. These two are enlargements of the inflorescence or flower clusters. broccoli is usually harvested before it's flowers start to open up. The flowers are small and yellow, just like wild mustard.

above is a very strange form of cauliflower. this cauliflower's geometric and beautiful flowers are very famous and are featured on the cover of the springboard geometry textbook.

Kale and collard greens are an expanse of the leaves. These two are the closest to the ancestor. It is very obvious when seen how these changed from wild mustard

wild cabbage is the common ancestor to all brassica oleracea.

the two look very similar showing that the apple didn't fall far from the tree for collard greens.

wild cabbage (above) and collard greens (below)

All of the brassica oleracea are so different in so many ways but all of them have one thing in common, they can all interbreed. You can find this by examining the reproductive organs in all of these plants.