Broccoli
Habit | herbaceous
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Lifespan: | ⌛ | annual |
Origin: | ✈ | Western Europe |
Exposure: | ☼ | sun, part-sun |
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Water: | ◍ | moderate |
Features: | ✓ | edible |
USDA Zones: | on"on" is not a number. to on"on" is not a number. | |
Flower features: | ❀ | yellow |
Brassica > |
oleracea > |
Broccoli > |
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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 Broccoli leaves are also edible. 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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ExpandRead about Broccoli in the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture
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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.[1] 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.[2]
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.
Raab broccoli has a larger number of small heads with many thin stalks and little leaves. It is technically in the Rapa cultivar group.
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.[3]
Gallery
Romanesco broccoli, showing fractal forms
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)
- ↑ Smith, Powell (June 1999). "HGIC 1301 Broccoli". Clemson University. Retrieved on 25 August 2009.
- ↑ Template:Cite encyclopedia
- ↑ Dixon, G.R. (2007). Vegetable brassicas and related crucifers. Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9780851993959.