Human Shield (1893); Broccoli Rabe (1928); Snail Salad

[Duane Campbell]

Did someone call for a botanist? I'm a horticulturist, which is like
calling for a supermodel and getting a dancer from a two dollar cover
bar, but I seem to be the best you've got.

All the vegetables in question here are in the genus Brassica and several
of them are even the same species, Brassica oleracea. So turnip (Brassica
rapa, just to confuse things) is a first cousin to broccoli (Brassica
oleracea italica). But broccoli in its various forms, cabbage, kale,
Brussels sprouts, and others are more like identical twins raised in
different families, being the same species with variations that have been
selected out over the centuries from the same wild plant, a leafy
cabbage.

Because of the complex history, there is not unaminity among taxonomists
-- there seldom is -- but here is how the NYT Book of Vegetable Garden
shakes it out:

        broccoli                 Brassica oleracea italica
        cabbage                Brassica oleracea capitata
        Brussels sprouts  Brassica oleracea  gemmifera
        cauliflower            Brassica oleracea botrytis
        collards                 Brassica oleracea acephala
        kale (common)     Brassica oleracea acephala

        Chinese cabbage        Brassica chinensis and B. pekinensis

        kohlrabi                Brassica caulorapa (listed with oleracea
by some)
        mustard                Brassica juncea
        rutabaga               Brassica napobrassica
        turnip                    Brassica rapa

Hortus III has a slightly different take on it, as does Bailey's Manual
of Cultivated Plants.

Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World has about twenty pages that
further confuse the issue. Barry, if you haven't looked at this book, you
really should.

None of this actually nails it. I went through some seed catalogs with
emphasis on foreign ... I mean international seeds, and most duck the
issue. But Pinetree Seed gives the following: "Broccoli di rapa. Called
Broccoli Raab or Rapini in this country, this is actually a non-heading
broccoli."

None of this, of course, makes much difference once it's steamed with a
little butter.

D