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{{Infobox Cultivar | name = Broccoli
| image = Broccoli bunches.jpg
| image_width = 150px
| image_caption = Broccoli, cultivar unknown
| species = ''[[Brassica oleracea]]''
| group = Italica Group
| origin = possibly [[Ancient Rome]]
| subdivision = Many; see text.
}}
'''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 green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The large mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles its close relative [[cauliflower]], but is green rather than white. Common varieties are '''Calabrese''' and '''purple sprouting broccoli'''.
==History of broccoli==
[[Image:Broccoli crop.jpg|thumb|Test plot-grown broccoli near Salinas, California, USA.]]
[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] references to a cabbage-family vegetable that may have been broccoli are less than perfectly clear: the Roman natural history writer, [[Pliny the Elder]], wrote about a vegetable that fit the description of broccoli. Some vegetable scholars recognize broccoli in the [[cookbook]] of [[Apicius]].
Broccoli was an Italian vegetable, as its name suggests, long before it was eaten elsewhere. It is first mentioned in [[France]] in [[1560]], but in [[1724]] broccoli was still so unfamiliar in [[England]] that [[Philip Miller]]'s ''Gardener's Dictionary'' (1724 edition) referred to it as a stranger in England and explained it as "sprout colli-flower" or "Italian asparagus". In the American colonies, [[Thomas Jefferson]] was also an experimentative gardener with a wide circle of European correspondents, from whom he got packets of seeds for rare vegetables such as tomatoes. He noted the planting of broccoli at [[Monticello]] along with radishes, lettuce, and cauliflower on [[May 27]], [[1767]]. Nevertheless, broccoli remained an exotic in American gardens. In 1775, John Randolph, in ''A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of Virginia,'' felt he had to explain about broccoli: "The stems will eat like [[Asparagus]], and the heads like [[Cauliflower]]."
Commercial cultivation of broccoli in the [[United States]] can be traced to the D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, immigrants from [[Messina, Italy]], whose company made some tentative plantings in [[San Jose, California]] in [[1922]]. A few crates were initially shipped to [[Boston]], where there was a thriving [[Italian people|Italian]] immigrant culture in the [[North End]]. The broccoli business boomed, with the D'Arrigo's brand name "Andy Boy" named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew, and backed with advertisements on the [[radio]].
A [[genetically engineered]] cross between broccoli and [[cauliflower]], the [[brocciflower]], was first cultivated in [[Europe]] around [[1988]]. Its very pale green heads are densely packed like [[cauliflower]] but has the flavour of broccoli.
The word ''broccoli'' comes from the [[Latin]] ''brachium'' and Italian ''braccio'' meaning "arm."
==Cultivation, preparation and nutritional value==
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Broccoli, raw (edible parts), 100g | kJ=141 | protein=2.82 g | fat=0.37 g | carbs=6.64 g | fiber=2.6 g | | sugars=1.7 g | iron_mg=0.73 | calcium_mg=47 | magnesium_mg=21 | phosphorus_mg=66 | potassium_mg=316 | zinc_mg=0.41 | vitC_mg=89.2 | pantothenic_mg=0.573 | vitB6_mg=0.175 | folate_ug=63 | thiamin_mg=0.071 | riboflavin_mg=0.117 | niacin_mg=0.639 | right=1 | source_usda=1 }}
Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. Other cultivar groups of ''Brassica oleracea'' include: [[cabbage]] (Capitata Group), [[cauliflower]] (Botrytis Group), [[kale]] and [[collard greens]] (Acephala Group), [[kohlrabi]] (Gongylodes Group), and [[Brussels sprout]]s (Gemmifera Group). [[Chinese broccoli]] (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of ''Brassica oleracea''.
It is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a
raw vegetable in [[hors-d'oeuvre]] trays. It is high in [[vitamin C]] and [[dietary fiber|soluble fiber]] and contains the compound glucoraphanin, leading to an anticancer compound [[sulforaphane]].
==Broccoli in popular culture==
*Broccoli is frequently referred to in [[popular culture]] as a vegetable that parents try to force their unwilling children to eat.
*In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode [[Treehouse of Horror XI]], Homer is killed by eating broccoli. When examining the body, Dr. Hibbert said that broccoli was one of the deadliest plants, and it warned people with its bad taste.
*United States President [[George H. W. Bush]] was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june98/fooddef_1-20.html |publisher=PBS |title=What's Your Beef? |accessdate=2006-08-05 |date=[[1998-01-20]]}}</ref> In response, a powerful broccoli [[agriculture]] [[lobby (politics)|lobby]] sent several tons of it to the White House. This broccoli was promptly donated to the [[Capital Area Food Bank]].<ref name="chron">{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/downloads/chronology.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2006-08-05 |title=Chronology |publisher=Capital Area Food Bank}}</ref>
*In the [[Television|TV]] [[sitcom]] ''[[Seinfeld]]'', [[Newman (Seinfeld)|Newman]] refers to broccoli as a "Vile weed!".
*Tom "Broccoli" Landers is the current world record holder for eating broccoli. Following the World Broccoli-Eating Contest in New Jersey, he offered this tip for getting it down: "Just swallow, don't bother to chew." Landers consumed 1 pound of the green vegetable in 92 seconds.
*In [[Michael Winterbottom]]'s 2002 film ''[[24 Hour Party People]]'', a [[marijuana|stoned]] [[Tony Wilson]] repeatedly claims that the vegetable was 'invented' by [[Albert R. Broccoli|Cubby Broccoli]].
*In 1928, when broccoli was still something of a novelty in the United States, a cartoon<ref>[http://cartoonbank.com/assets/1/38868_m.gif Cartoon featuring broccoli]</ref> appeared in the [[New Yorker magazine]], drawn by [[Carl Rose]] with a caption by [[E.B. White]]. A mother and child are seated at the table, and the mother says "It's broccoli, dear." The child replies "I say it's [[spinach]], and I say the hell with it."
* In ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode [[I Never Met the Dead Man]], Stewie devises a plan to get out of eating the broccoli that he so despises: he intends to build a weather-altering machine that will freeze broccoli crops everywhere.
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:sa_broccoli_florets.jpg|Extreme close-up of broccoli florets.
Image:Broccoli_bloem.jpg | Broccoli flowers.
Image:Broccoli DSC00861.png|Two broccoli heads.
Image:Fractal Broccoli.jpg|[[Romanesco broccoli]], showing [[fractal]] forms
Image:Broccoli in a dish 2.jpg|Steamed broccoli
</gallery>
==References and notes==
<div class="references-small"><references /></div>
==External links==
{{commonscat|Broccoli}}
* [http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-broccoli011000000000000000000.html Complete nutritional info.]
* [http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch44.html Broccoli lore]
* [http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/broccoli.shtml Broccoli for the home gardener]
* [http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1236856 Photograph of the distinctive Broccoli romanesco.]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4382-1589335_3,00.html Gordon Ramsay recipe for Broccoli Soup]
* [http://www.honolulumagazine.com/articles.aspx?id=4439&q=&m=11&y=2006&bid=1 "Mom Was Right", HONOLULU Magazine ~ November 2006]
[[Category:Inflorescence vegetables]]
[[Category:Brassica]]
{{Infobox Cultivar | name = Broccoli
| image = Broccoli bunches.jpg
| image_width = 150px
| image_caption = Broccoli, cultivar unknown
| species = ''[[Brassica oleracea]]''
| group = Italica Group
| origin = possibly [[Ancient Rome]]
| subdivision = Many; see text.
}}
'''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 green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The large mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles its close relative [[cauliflower]], but is green rather than white. Common varieties are '''Calabrese''' and '''purple sprouting broccoli'''.
==History of broccoli==
[[Image:Broccoli crop.jpg|thumb|Test plot-grown broccoli near Salinas, California, USA.]]
[[Ancient Rome|Roman]] references to a cabbage-family vegetable that may have been broccoli are less than perfectly clear: the Roman natural history writer, [[Pliny the Elder]], wrote about a vegetable that fit the description of broccoli. Some vegetable scholars recognize broccoli in the [[cookbook]] of [[Apicius]].
Broccoli was an Italian vegetable, as its name suggests, long before it was eaten elsewhere. It is first mentioned in [[France]] in [[1560]], but in [[1724]] broccoli was still so unfamiliar in [[England]] that [[Philip Miller]]'s ''Gardener's Dictionary'' (1724 edition) referred to it as a stranger in England and explained it as "sprout colli-flower" or "Italian asparagus". In the American colonies, [[Thomas Jefferson]] was also an experimentative gardener with a wide circle of European correspondents, from whom he got packets of seeds for rare vegetables such as tomatoes. He noted the planting of broccoli at [[Monticello]] along with radishes, lettuce, and cauliflower on [[May 27]], [[1767]]. Nevertheless, broccoli remained an exotic in American gardens. In 1775, John Randolph, in ''A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of Virginia,'' felt he had to explain about broccoli: "The stems will eat like [[Asparagus]], and the heads like [[Cauliflower]]."
Commercial cultivation of broccoli in the [[United States]] can be traced to the D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, immigrants from [[Messina, Italy]], whose company made some tentative plantings in [[San Jose, California]] in [[1922]]. A few crates were initially shipped to [[Boston]], where there was a thriving [[Italian people|Italian]] immigrant culture in the [[North End]]. The broccoli business boomed, with the D'Arrigo's brand name "Andy Boy" named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew, and backed with advertisements on the [[radio]].
A [[genetically engineered]] cross between broccoli and [[cauliflower]], the [[brocciflower]], was first cultivated in [[Europe]] around [[1988]]. Its very pale green heads are densely packed like [[cauliflower]] but has the flavour of broccoli.
The word ''broccoli'' comes from the [[Latin]] ''brachium'' and Italian ''braccio'' meaning "arm."
==Cultivation, preparation and nutritional value==
{{nutritionalvalue | name=Broccoli, raw (edible parts), 100g | kJ=141 | protein=2.82 g | fat=0.37 g | carbs=6.64 g | fiber=2.6 g | | sugars=1.7 g | iron_mg=0.73 | calcium_mg=47 | magnesium_mg=21 | phosphorus_mg=66 | potassium_mg=316 | zinc_mg=0.41 | vitC_mg=89.2 | pantothenic_mg=0.573 | vitB6_mg=0.175 | folate_ug=63 | thiamin_mg=0.071 | riboflavin_mg=0.117 | niacin_mg=0.639 | right=1 | source_usda=1 }}
Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. Other cultivar groups of ''Brassica oleracea'' include: [[cabbage]] (Capitata Group), [[cauliflower]] (Botrytis Group), [[kale]] and [[collard greens]] (Acephala Group), [[kohlrabi]] (Gongylodes Group), and [[Brussels sprout]]s (Gemmifera Group). [[Chinese broccoli]] (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of ''Brassica oleracea''.
It is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a
raw vegetable in [[hors-d'oeuvre]] trays. It is high in [[vitamin C]] and [[dietary fiber|soluble fiber]] and contains the compound glucoraphanin, leading to an anticancer compound [[sulforaphane]].
==Broccoli in popular culture==
*Broccoli is frequently referred to in [[popular culture]] as a vegetable that parents try to force their unwilling children to eat.
*In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' episode [[Treehouse of Horror XI]], Homer is killed by eating broccoli. When examining the body, Dr. Hibbert said that broccoli was one of the deadliest plants, and it warned people with its bad taste.
*United States President [[George H. W. Bush]] was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june98/fooddef_1-20.html |publisher=PBS |title=What's Your Beef? |accessdate=2006-08-05 |date=[[1998-01-20]]}}</ref> In response, a powerful broccoli [[agriculture]] [[lobby (politics)|lobby]] sent several tons of it to the White House. This broccoli was promptly donated to the [[Capital Area Food Bank]].<ref name="chron">{{cite web|url=http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/downloads/chronology.pdf |format=PDF |accessdate=2006-08-05 |title=Chronology |publisher=Capital Area Food Bank}}</ref>
*In the [[Television|TV]] [[sitcom]] ''[[Seinfeld]]'', [[Newman (Seinfeld)|Newman]] refers to broccoli as a "Vile weed!".
*Tom "Broccoli" Landers is the current world record holder for eating broccoli. Following the World Broccoli-Eating Contest in New Jersey, he offered this tip for getting it down: "Just swallow, don't bother to chew." Landers consumed 1 pound of the green vegetable in 92 seconds.
*In [[Michael Winterbottom]]'s 2002 film ''[[24 Hour Party People]]'', a [[marijuana|stoned]] [[Tony Wilson]] repeatedly claims that the vegetable was 'invented' by [[Albert R. Broccoli|Cubby Broccoli]].
*In 1928, when broccoli was still something of a novelty in the United States, a cartoon<ref>[http://cartoonbank.com/assets/1/38868_m.gif Cartoon featuring broccoli]</ref> appeared in the [[New Yorker magazine]], drawn by [[Carl Rose]] with a caption by [[E.B. White]]. A mother and child are seated at the table, and the mother says "It's broccoli, dear." The child replies "I say it's [[spinach]], and I say the hell with it."
* In ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode [[I Never Met the Dead Man]], Stewie devises a plan to get out of eating the broccoli that he so despises: he intends to build a weather-altering machine that will freeze broccoli crops everywhere.
==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:sa_broccoli_florets.jpg|Extreme close-up of broccoli florets.
Image:Broccoli_bloem.jpg | Broccoli flowers.
Image:Broccoli DSC00861.png|Two broccoli heads.
Image:Fractal Broccoli.jpg|[[Romanesco broccoli]], showing [[fractal]] forms
Image:Broccoli in a dish 2.jpg|Steamed broccoli
</gallery>
==References and notes==
<div class="references-small"><references /></div>
==External links==
{{commonscat|Broccoli}}
* [http://www.nutritiondata.com/foods-broccoli011000000000000000000.html Complete nutritional info.]
* [http://www.vegparadise.com/highestperch44.html Broccoli lore]
* [http://growingtaste.com/vegetables/broccoli.shtml Broccoli for the home gardener]
* [http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=1236856 Photograph of the distinctive Broccoli romanesco.]
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4382-1589335_3,00.html Gordon Ramsay recipe for Broccoli Soup]
* [http://www.honolulumagazine.com/articles.aspx?id=4439&q=&m=11&y=2006&bid=1 "Mom Was Right", HONOLULU Magazine ~ November 2006]
[[Category:Inflorescence vegetables]]
[[Category:Brassica]]