Brassica oleracea

Brassica oleracea L., Sp. Pl. 667. 1753; Clapham et al., Fl. Brit. Isles ed. 2: 122. 1962; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 8: 17; Fl. North Amer. @ eFloras.org 7: 423; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org

Biennial or perennials with slender tap root or woody caudex becoming suffrutescent, glabrous, glaucous. Stem branched distally, 30-150 cm. Basal leaves petiolate, petiole up to 30 cm long, blade oblong to obovate, to 45 cm 15 cm, fleshy, blade pinnatifid/ pinnatisect and with a large terminal lobe and small 1-13 lobes on each side of midrib or with dentate margin. Cauline leaves sessile, blade oblong to lanceolate to 10 cm x 4 cm, base auriculate or amplexicaul, margin entire, repand or denticulate. Inflorescence corymbose raceme in panicles, fleshy and sometimes condensed into a head. Fruiting pedicels usually straight, ascending or divaricate, 8-40 mm (average size 25-25 mm). Sepals 4, oblong, 8-15 mm x 15-27 mm, erect. Petals 4, cruciform, creamy yellow or rarely white, 15-30 mm x 6-12 mm (average size 18-25 mm x 8-10 mm), ovate or elliptic, apex rounded; claw 7-15 mm. Stamens 6, tetradynamous; filaments 8-12 mm long; anthers 2.5-4 mm, oblong. Ovary cylindrical, bilocular with many ovules; style short and thick; stigma capitate. Siliquae linear, 25-100 mm (average range 40-80 mm) long, 25-50 mm (average size 30-40 mm), cylindrical, sessile or shortly stipitate, divaricate or ascending, 10-20 seeds per locule; valves with a prominent midvein; terminal segment conical, 3-10 mm, seedless or 1-2 seeded; style obsolete. Seeds dark brown or blackish, globose, 1.5-2.5 mm in diameter.

KEY TO THE VARIETIES

1. Racemes elongated, neither fleshy, nor covered with leaves; stem abbreviated with a dense head of leaves
before flowering………………………………………… var. capitata (Cabbage)
+ Racemes congested, fleshy and abbreviated, +/-
covered with leaves; stem not with head of leaves
before flowering …………………………………………………………….…2
2. Flower buds white, densely and tightly compact;
Rachis and pedicels white………………………….. var. botrytis (Cauliflower)
+ Flower buds green, somewhat loosely grouped,
Rachis and pedicels green……………………………var. italica (Broccoli)