Broccoli

Plant Characteristics

Habit		herbaceous

Cultivation

Exposure:	☼	sun
Water:	◍	moderate
Features:	✓	edible

Scientific Names

Brassica >

oleracea >

Broccoli >

Italica Group >

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Broccoli is a plant in the cabbage family, whose large flower head is used as a vegetable.

Broccoli is classified in the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli has large flower heads, usually green in color, arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles cauliflower, which is a different cultivar group of the same species.

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Read about Broccoli in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Broccoli, which is a long-season cauliflower, is in all respects like cauliflower except that its vegetative parts are somewhat coarser, the heads somewhat smaller, and it does not form an edible curd early in its life as does cauliflower. Broccoli is cultivated only in climates having a mild winter, when it can be planted the summer before and carried through the winter to form heads early the following spring. It is a popular plant in all parts of France and particularly in England. It is undoubtedly the parent type of the cauliflower, the cultivated varieties of cauliflower being short-season forms. For best results, the seed should be sown at the same time as that of autumn cabbage and the plants transplanted to the field about the same time, so that they will make their vegetative growth during the late summer and autumn. Where winters are mild, the plants can be left in the open, but in more rigorous climates at the approach of cold weather, a small number of plants can be lifted with earth adhering to the roots, stored in a suitable root-cellar, and the following spring transferred to the open to form heads. L. C. Cobbett.CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

Cultivation

Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. Broccoli grows best when exposed to an average daily temperature between 18 and 23 °C. When the cluster of flowers, also referred to as a "head" of broccoli, appear in the center of the plant, the cluster is green. Garden pruners or shears are used to cut the head about an inch from the tip. Broccoli should be cultivated before the flowers on the head bloom bright yellow.

Propagation

Seed.

Pests and diseases

Pest

Cabbage Butterfly [1]

Cabbage Fly [2]

Cabbage Looper [3]

Cutworm [4]

Diseases

Clubroot [5]

Black Rot

Mildew

Varieties

There are three commonly grown types of broccoli. The most familiar is a often referred to simply as "broccoli", and sometimes calabrese named after Calabria in Italy. It has large (10 to 20 cm) green heads and thick stalks. It is a cool season annual crop.

Sprouting broccoli has a larger number of heads with many thin stalks. It is planted in May to be harvested during the winter or early the following year in temperate climates. The heirloom variety "calabrese" available in North America is of this type.

Romanesco broccoli has a distinctive fractal appearance of its heads, and is yellow-green in colour. It is technically in the Botrytis (cauliflower) cultivar group.

Purple cauliflower is a type of broccoli sold in southern Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It has a head shaped like cauliflower, but consisting of tiny flower buds. It sometimes, but not always, has a purple cast to the tips of the flower buds.

Other cultivar groups of Brassica oleracea include cabbage (Capitata Group), cauliflower (Botrytis Group), kale and collard greens (Acephala Group), kohlrabi (Gongylodes Group), and Brussels sprouts (Gemmifera Group). Chinese broccoli (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of Brassica oleracea.

Gallery

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  Test plot-grown broccoli

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  Extreme close-up of broccoli florets.

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  Broccoli flowers.

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  Two broccoli heads.

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  Romanesco broccoli, showing fractal forms

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  Steamed broccoli

References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Broccoli. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Broccoli QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)