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Hundreds of new seeds varieties are developed each year. Some gardener become concerned when they read of how hybrid plants are destroying older varieties, or that they are not as nutritious or that are developed during a subversive plot by giant seed companies. Try to put that concern into perspective.
With human intervention and breeding programs, plants are changing more rapidly now than ever before. Humans have always imposed changes upon the plants we eat and use in other ways but the pace is increasing.
Many of the greatest changes that human have made in crop development are not made as a part of a planned research strategy. Many changes are from simply collecting seeds from those plants we use the most. We grow them more frequently than plants that are not as useful or as tasty.
The wild cabbage or Brassica oleracea plant is native to the Mediterranean region of Europe. In appearance, it is somewhat similar to a leafy canola plant. Like thousands of other plants, it is a member of the mustard family and as such has a four- petal, crossed shaped flower.
This cabbage genus is one of the oldest vegetable groups known to man and contains many interesting and tasty plants. Sometime after plants started to be domesticated, people in around the Mediterranean Sea began growing the first of these ancient "cabbage" plants as leafy vegetables.
Because leaves were the part of the plant that people ate, gardeners naturally selected seeds from those that grew the largest leaves to propagate the next year's crop.
Slowly and over time, larger-leafed plants developed because growers selected and replanted the seed from the largest-leafed plants for many generations. Simply choosing one plant over another to propagate made an enormous effect on improving a particular crop,
By selecting one plant over another, small differences were slowly introduced into a population. Over time, the small changes accumulate and produce dramatic results.
The common cabbage vegetables are excellent examples of remarkable crop improvements by simple long-term selection. These plants did not come from controlled breeding programs with specific goals but came because gardeners grew those plants with the features they wanted.
Although they look very different, kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, cauliflower, broccoli and Brussels sprouts are all the same species of plant. These plants are all botanically members of the species Brassica oleracea.
The only differences in these plants are differences introduced over thousands of years of human cultivation and selective propagating. By the 5th century B.C., the preference for ever-larger leaves led to the development of the vegetable known as kale.
Kale is botanically Brassica oleracea variety acephala. That translates to mean "cabbage of the vegetable garden without a head."
Later, gardeners started growing plants with a tight cluster of tender young leaves in the centre of the plant at the top of the stem. People preferred plants with large number of tender leaves packed into the terminal bud, these plants were selected and propagated more frequently.
After hundreds of successive generations, plants developed with more and more dense clusters of leaves at the top of the plant. The cluster eventually became so large, it dominated the whole plant, and the cabbage "head" of modern cabbage came about. This plant, named Brassica oleracea variety capitata, which translates to "cabbage of the vegetable garden with a head." Growers selected kale plants with shorter and fatter fleshy stems. These selections eventually led to changes in the ancient "cabbage" plant developing into the vegetable we now call kohlrabi. Botanists gave the kohlrabi plant Brassica oleracea variety caulorapa., The last word means, "stem turnip."
Some southern Europeans developed a preference for the taste of the immature flower buds of the cabbage plants. Again, gardeners started favoring plants with large tender flowering heads. Therefore, growers selected those that fit this criteria and by the 15th century, the modern vegetable, cauliflower developed. Cauliflower is named Brassica oleracea variety botrytis. The last part of the name refers to the cauliflower curd that seems to resemble a bunch of grapes.
Some 100 years later Italian growers propagated broccoli. Because broccoli developed in Italy, it was named Brassica oleracea variety italica.
Finally, in the 18th century, Belgium growers selected cabbage plants that produced large number of large, tightly packed leafy buds along the main stem. Because of their geographical origins, they are called Brussels sprouts.
The Latin name Brassica oleracea variety gemmifera, means "garden cabbage bearing gems."
Simple selection by the people growing the plant over seven thousand years, led to the development of dramatically different vegetables that are all members of the same species, Brassica oleracea.
In spite of these plants being the same genus and species, there are many new improvements to all of these plants. Some of these are selections made from natural improvements; others come from breeders introducing selections from their breeding work.
Red Butte Garden is hosting a native plant propagation workshop, Saturday at 10 a.m. Cost is $32 for members, $40 for nonmembers. To register, call 581-8454 or log onto www.redbuttegarden.org. For more information, read my column in yesterday's Deseret Morning News.
Larry Sagers Horticultural Specialist Utah State University Extension Service Thanksgiving Point Office © All Rights Reserved
