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Brassica oleracea

(Cabbage, Kale)

Common Names

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Click on the language to view common names.

Common Names in Chinese:

Ye Gan Lan

Common Names in English:

Cabbage, Kale

Common Names in Italian:

Cavolo

Common Names in Portuguese:

Couve

Common Names in Russian:

капуста, Kapusta

Common Names in Spanish:

Col

Common Names in Swedish:

Prydnadskål

Description

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Genus Brassica

Herbs annual , biennial, or perennial , rarely subshrubs or shrubs , often glaucous. Trichomes absent or simple . Stems erect or ascending , simple or branched, leafy or rarely leafless. Basal leaves petiolate , rosulate or not, simple, entire , dentate , lyrate-pinnatifid, or pinnatisect . Cauline leaves petiolate or sessile, base cuneate, attenuate, auriculate , sagittate , or amplexicaul , margin entire, dentate, or lobed . Racemes ebracteate , elongated in fruit. Fruiting pedicels ascending, divaricate , or reflexed . Sepals ovate or oblong , erect, ascending, or rarely spreading , base of lateral pair saccate or not. Petals yellow, rarely white or pink; blade obovate , spatulate , or rarely oblanceolate , apex obtuse or emarginate ; claw distinct , subequaling or longer than sepals. Stamens 6, tetradynamous ; anthers ovate or oblong, obtuse at apex. Nectar glands 4, median and lateral, rarely 2 and lateral. Ovules 4-50 per ovary. Fruit dehiscent siliques, linear or rarely oblong, terete , 4-angled, or latiseptate , sessile or shortly stipitate , segmented ; valvular segment dehiscent , 4-46-seeded, longer than terminal segment, smooth or torulose , valves with a prominent midvein and obscure lateral veins; terminal segment seedless or 1(-3) -seeded; replum rounded ; septum complete , translucent or opaque , veinless or with a distinct midvein; style obsolete or distinct; stigma capitate, entire or 2-lobed. Seeds uniseriate or rarely biseriate , wingless, globose or rarely oblong, plump or rarely slightly flattened; seed coat reticulate , mucilaginous or not when wetted; cotyledons conduplicate .

About 40 species: primarily in the Mediterranean region, especially SW Europe and NW Africa; six species in China.

Brassica includes the most important vegetables and oilseed plants of the Brassicaceae, and China is the center where human selection has created numerous cultivars, more so than elsewhere in the world. Most of these were described by Liberty H. Bailey as species based primarily on minor differences in leaf morphology. In fact, Bailey (Gent. Herb. 1: 53-108. 1922; 2: 211-267. 1930; 4: 319-330. 1940) recognized 25 crop species of Brassica (including two presently assigned to Sinapis and ten as "new"), of which 23 species names clearly belong to only six species (nos. 1-5 of the present account, plus B . carinata A. Braun) . Critical study of all of Bailey's types by one of the present authors (Al-Shehbaz), along with comprehensive cytological, crossing, and molecular studies conducted by numerous researchers over the past several decades, reveal that all of Bailey's "species and infraspecific taxa" clearly belong to four species: B. juncea (2n = 36), B. napus (2n = 38), B. oleracea (2n = 18), and B. rapa (2n = 20) .

Cultivated forms (or taxa) with the same chromosome number are indistinguishable in fruit, seed, and flower characters, and they interbreed freely and produce fully fertile offspring. Furthermore, such forms often lose their identity outside of cultivation and become basically indistinguishable from the weedy forms of the species to which they belong. Because the Chinese Brassica are maintained only in cultivation as distinct crops and have well-established Chinese names , they have been recognized in most of Chinese floras as distinct species. However, they are best treated as varieties, just as the numerous and morphologically far more diversified forms of B. oleracea are recognized worldwide (see below) . As many as 18 species of Brassica have been recognized in China, but the easternmost native range of the genus hardly reaches C Asia. On the basis of the enormous array of cultivated infraspecific taxa of B. juncea and B. rapa in China, it is evident that these two species have been domesticated there for thousands of years."Brassica". in Flora of China Vol. 8 Page 16. Published by Science Press (Beijing) and Missouri Botanical Garden Press. Online at EFloras.org.

Physical Description

Species Brassica oleracea

Herbs biennial or perennial , rarely annual , (0.3-) 0.6-1.5(-3) m tall, glabrous , glaucous. Stems erect or decumbent , branched at or above middle , sometimes fleshy at base . Basal and lowermost cauline leaves long petiolate , sometimes strongly overlapping and forming a head ; petiole to 30 cm; leaf blade ovate , oblong , or lanceolate in outline, to 40 × 15 cm, margin entire , repand , or dentate , sometimes pinnatifid or pinnatisect and with a large terminal lobe and smaller, 1-13, oblong or ovate lateral lobes on each side of midvein . Upper cauline leaves sessile or subsessile in some cultivated forms, oblanceolate , ovate, or oblong, to 10 × 4 cm, base amplexicaul, auriculate , or rarely cuneate, margin entire, repand, or rarely dentate. Racemes sometimes fleshy and condensed into a head. Fruiting pedicels usually straight, ascending or divaricate , (0.8-) 1.4-2.5(-4) cm. Sepals oblong, 0.8-1.5 cm × 1.5-2.7 mm, erect. Petals creamy yellow or rarely white, (1.5-) 1.8-2.5(-3) × (0.6-) 0.8-1.2 cm, ovate or elliptic , apex rounded ; claw 0.7-1.5 cm. Filaments 0.8-1.2 cm; anthers oblong, 2.5-4 mm. Fruit linear , (2.5-) 4-8(-10) cm × (2.5-) 3-4(-5) mm, terete , sessile or on a gynophore to 3 mm, divaricate or ascending; valvular segment (2-) 3-7.5(-9) cm, 10-20-seeded per locule, valves with a prominent midvein; terminal segment conical, (3-) 4-10 mm, seedless or 1(or 2) -seeded; style obsolete . Seeds dark brown or blackish, globose , 1.5-2.5 mm in diam., minutely reticulate . Fl. Mar-Jun, fr. Apr-Jul. 2n = 18*. [source]

Wild populations of var. oleracea are known only from the coastal cliffs of W Europe. Of the 15 varieties and 16 forms recognized by Helm (Kulturpflanze 11: 92-210. 1963), seven varieties are cultivated in China, the most commonly grown of which are vars. botrytis, capitata, gongylodes, and italica. The other varieties are less commonly grown. [source]

Habit: Forb/herb

Habitat

 

Biology

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Reproduction

Duration: Perennial

Taxonomy

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Unambiguous Synonyms

  1. Brassica oleracea var. acephala DC.
  2. Brassica oleracea var. capitata L.

Notes

Publishing author : DC. ex H.Lév. Publication : in Monde des Plantes, xii. 24 (1910) Name Status: Accepted Name . Latest taxonomic scrutiny: 15-Mar-2000

Place of publication: Sp. pl. 2:667. 1753

Name verified on 19-Aug-1986 by ARS Systematic Botanists. Last updated: 29-Sep-1994

Similar Species

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Members of the genus Brassica

There are approximately 2162 species in this genus. Here are just 100 of them:

B. 'Gai Lohn' (Chinese Broccoli) · B. 'Hot Stuff' (Cress) · B. 'Tender Green' (Broccoli) · B. 'Wisley' tetraploid · B. acris · B. adpressa · B. aelleniana · B. agrestis · B. alboglabra (Chinese Kale) · B. aleracea · B. allionii · B. alpina · B. amblyorhyncha · B. amblyphylla · B. amplexicaule · B. amplexicaulis · B. amplexicaulis souliei · B. amplexicaulis subsp. souliei · B. angustifolia · B. antarctica · B. anticaria · B. antiquorum · B. apula · B. arabica · B. arborea · B. arenosa · B. argyi · B. armoracioides · B. arvensis var. juncea · B. arvensis var. orientalis · B. arvensis var. schkuhriana · B. asperifolia · B. assyriaca · B. atlantica · B. aucheri · B. aurasiaca · B. austriaca · B. azurea · B. balearica · B. barbareaefolia · B. barrelieri · B. barrelieri oxyrrhina · B. barrelieri subsp. oxyrrhina · B. besseriana · B. bivoniana · B. blancoana · B. boetica · B. boissieri · B. botrytis · B. botteri · B. bourgeaui · B. brachycarpa · B. brachyloma · B. bracteata · B. bracteolata · B. brassicata · B. brevicaulis · B. brevipes · B. brevirostrata · B. briggsii · B. bullata · B. bunias · B. bursipastorifolia · B. cadmea · B. calcarea · B. camarae · B. campestris 'Canton Bok' (Dwarf White Stem Pak Choy) · B. campestris 'Ho Tau Bok' (Dwarf White Stem Pak Choy) · B. campestris f. auriculata · B. campestris f. tenuis · B. campestris napus · B. campestris napus var. dichotoma · B. campestris rapifera · B. campestris var. chinensis 'Bangluang' (Bok Choy) · B. campestris var. chinensis 'Hong Tae' (Bok Choy) · B. campestris var. chinensis 'Kesorn' (Bok Choy) · B. campestris var. chinensis 'Kokaew' (Bok Choy) · B. cantabrica · B. capitala · B. capitata · B. carinata (Abyssinian Mustard) · B. carinata 'Karinaae' · B. carinata 'Talisman' · B. carinata 'Texsel' · B. catholica · B. caularapa · B. cauliflora · B. cazzae · B. celerifolia · B. cephala · B. cernua · B. cespitosa · B. cheiranthiflora · B. cheiranthos · B. cheiranthus · B. chenopodiifolia · B. chinensis (Pak Choi) · B. chinensis f. aichi · B. chinensis f. chifu · B. chinensis f. hiberna

Bibliography

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More Info

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Notes

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Contributors

Data Sources

Accessed through GBIF Data Portal November 17, 2007:

Identifiers

Footnotes

Last Revised: 2008-08-20