Beet
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The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant in the amaranth family. It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is probably the red root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet. However, other cultivated varieties include the leaf vegetables chard and spinach beet, as well as the root vegetables sugar beet, which is important in the production of table sugar, and mangelwurzel, which is a fodder crop. Three subspecies are typically recognised. All cultivated varieties fall into the subspecies Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, while Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, commonly known as the sea beet, is the wild ancestor of these and is found throughout the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Near East, and India. A second wild subspecies, Beta vulgaris subsp. adanensis, occurs from Greece to Syria.
The beet has a long history of cultivation stretching back to the second millennium BC. The plant was probably domesticated somewhere along the Mediterranean, whence it was later spread to Babylonia by the 8th century BC and as far east as China by 850 AD. Available evidence, such as that provided by Aristotle and Theophrastus suggests that the leafy varieties of the beet were grown primarily for most of its history, though these lost much of their popularity much later following the introduction of spinach. The beet became highly commercially important in 19th century Europe following the development of the sugar beet in Germany and the discovery that sucrose could be extracted from them, providing an alternative to tropical sugar cane. It remains a widely cultivated commercial crop for producing table sugar.
Beta vulgaris is a herbaceous biennial or rarely perennial plant with leafy stems growing to 1–2 m tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, 5–20 cm long on wild plants (often much larger in cultivated plants). The flowers are produced in dense spikes, each flower very small, 3–5 mm diameter, green or tinged reddish, with five petals; they are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a cluster of hard nutlets.
Cultivation
Propagation
Pests and diseases
Varieties
- Beta all cultivated varieties of the beet, which are grown for their taproots, leaves, or swollen midribs.
- B. v. ssp. vulgaris convar. cicla (leaf beets) - The leaf beet group has a long history dating to the second millennium BC. The first cultivated forms were believed to have been domesticated in the Mediterranean, but were introduced to the Middle East, India, and finally China by 850 AD. These were used as medicinal plants in Ancient Greece and Medieval Europe. Their popularity declined in Europe following the introduction of spinach.
- B. v. ssp. v. convar. cicla. var. cicla (spinach beet) - This variety is widely cultivated for its leaves, which are usually cooked like spinach. It can be found in many grocery stores around the world.
- B. v. ssp. v. convar. cicla. var. flaviscens (chard) - Chard is grown for its leaves, which have thick and fleshy midribs that are used as a vegetable. Some cultivars are also grown ornamentally for their coloured midribs. The thickened midribs are thought to have arisen from the spinach beet by mutation.
- B. v. ssp. vulgaris convar. vulgaris (tuberous beets) - This grouping contains all beets grown for their thickend tubers rather than their leaves.
- B. v. ssp. v. convar. vulgaris var. crassa (mangelwurzel) - This variety was developed in the 1700s for its tubers for use as a fodder crop
- B. v. ssp. v. convar. vulgaris var. altissima (sugar beet) - The sugar beet is a major commercial crop due to its high concentrations of sucrose, which is extracted to produce table sugar. It was developed in Germany in the late 18th century after the roots of beets were found to contain sugar in 1747.
- B. v. ssp. v. convar. vulgaris var. vulgaris (garden beet) - This is the red root vegetable that is most typically associated with the word 'beet'. It is especially popular in Eastern Europe where it is the main ingredient of borscht
- B. v. ssp. vulgaris convar. cicla (leaf beets) - The leaf beet group has a long history dating to the second millennium BC. The first cultivated forms were believed to have been domesticated in the Mediterranean, but were introduced to the Middle East, India, and finally China by 850 AD. These were used as medicinal plants in Ancient Greece and Medieval Europe. Their popularity declined in Europe following the introduction of spinach.
Beets are cultivated for fodder (e.g. mangelwurzel), for sugar (the sugar beet), as a leaf vegetable (chard or "Bull's Blood"), or as a root vegetable ("beetroot", "table beet", or "garden beet"). Major root vegetable cultivars include:
- "Albina Vereduna", a white variety
- "Burpee's Golden", a beet with orange-red skin and yellow flesh.
- "Chioggia", an open-pollinated variety originally grown in Italy. The concentric rings of its red and white roots are visually striking when sliced. As a heritage variety, Chioggia is largely unimproved and has relatively high concentrations of geosmin.
- "Detroit Dark Red", with relatively low concentrations of geosmin, and is therefore a popular commercial cultivar in the United States.
- "India Beet" is not as sweet as Western beet. However India beet is more nutritious than Western beet.[citation needed]
- "Lutz Greenleaf", a variety with a red root and green leaves, and a reputation for maintaining its quality well in storage.
- "Red Ace", the principal variety of beet found in the United States[citation needed], typical for its bright red root and red-veined green foliage.
"Blood Turnip" was once a common name for beet root cultivars for the garden. Examples include: Bastian's Blood Turnip, Dewing's Early Blood Turnip, Edmand Blood Turnip, and Will's Improved Blood Turnip.[1]
The "earthy" taste of some beetroot cultivars comes from the presence of geosmin.
Beets are one of the most boron-intensive of modern crops. A lack of boron causes the meristem and the shoot to languish, eventually leading to heart rot.
Gallery
Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
ExpandRead about Beet in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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References
- ↑ http://heirloomseedsmen.com/types/Beets/ Beets Varieties
- Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
External links
- w:Beet. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
- Beet QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)