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Species doesn't mean as much in the plant world. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, kohlrabi, and gai lan are all Brassica
by kortex 5y ago
Species doesn't mean as much in the plant world. Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, kohlrabi, and gai lan are all Brassica oleracea. You can have specimens that are even technically the same cultivar but wildly different alimentary character.
- MattGaiser 5y agoTIL that the vegetable aisle has half the species I thought it did.
- Ericson2314 5y agoI think napa cabbage and a few others are also all the "other" brassica.
- kortex 5y agoOh yeah. Brassica rapa has your turnip, napa cabbage, bok choy and rapini/rabes. Brassica napus gives canola oil, swedish turnip, and rutabaga. Mustard comes from B. juncea, B. nigra and B. hirta. Also those species names aren't really even guaranteed to be accurate because biologists, botanists, geneticists, etc, can't even really agree on where to draw the line. There's a whole genre of Brassica memes and it's fantastic. https://mobile.twitter.com/faineg/status/1386522223901618177?lang=en https://mobile.twitter.com/faineg/status/1386522223901618177...
- danwills 5y agoHooray!! I totally love the way 'Brassica' vegetables provide such a vivid illustration of the amazing variety that some selection-pressure can yield on the development of essentially a single type of input organism. Makes you wonder what might happen when these types of selection-pressures start affecting humankind more!
- galangalalgol 5y agoBrassica and domesticated dogs diversified because of controlled breeding. Unless you get a bunch of totalitarian eugenicists with differing goals, I dont know how this could happen with people.
- PhasmaFelis 5y agoI could imagine it happening if interstellar colonization ever becomes a thing, maybe.