FWIW, this is the default broccoli in center italy (hence the name "romanesco"[0]). Took me decades to understand why american media used such weird broccoli (i.e. what the rest of the world call thus).
I've always wondered if those are the ones in the famous Diocletian quote "Would you could see the cabbages planted by my hand at Salona, you would then never think of urging such an attempt [to return from retirement as Emperor]".
Another plant he left out was Arabidopsis, which is the model organism most studied by plant biologists as it has the second shortest plant genome (they used to think it was the shortest). My company (http://www.glowingplant.com) is engineering these to make them glow in the dark... so maybe we can make glow-in-the-dark broccoli next ;) It's not hundreds of years to make new cultivars now, dramatic changes can be achieved in months. Fun fact: you can make an arabidopsis look like a Brussels sprout with the modification to a single gene... it wouldn't taste as good though, that takes more genes!
I've unintentionally known this for about 25 years. Nobody ever believed that I was allergic to broccoli or cauliflower and just thought I hated them. Then one day I tried out kale and found that it tasted similar to broccoli to me. I asked my wife if she felt the same way (brussel sprouts also taste the same) and she said they all taste very different to her.
We then looked up and saw that they're all part of the mustard family.
So if you're ever curious if a plant is part of the mustard family just let me taste it and I'll let you know... and then throw up on you.
Seriously. I try to not get overly annoyed at people finding out common facts: everyone has to learn it once, right? But this is an awfully obvious one. Besides, there's really no justification for linking to Ezra and Matty's Mouth-Breathers-r-Us.
There's a number of people who visit Hacker News and not Reddit... and since HN doesn't have subreddits, they just dump whatever thing they find is interesting in the same place, regardless of how appropriate it is to the site's purpose. It's obnoxious.
The mustard that we typically eat as a condiment or greens are Sinapis alba, Brassica juncea, and Brassica nigra, which are in the same family as Brassica oleracea, but they aren't the same species.
Ah yes, selective breeding... also known as the original method for creating GMOs. Nowadays we can just do things a bit faster without all of the waiting required for multiple generations of crops. But that doesn't mean that we haven't been practicing artificial genetic selection for millennia.
Unless you are my long lost twin, you and I don't have the exact same genome either. Personally, I like the thought that cauliflower is the poodle of cabbages.
The distinction is that dogs and wolves are different subspecies. However these plants have diverged mostly within the last thousand years or so, so they might not be even that different.
I'm not sure if it has changed, but things used to be called the same species if they can interbreed with each other and produce fertile offspring. Dog is wolf, yes; man is ape, no.
I don't believe it. Very interesting read, and I don't doubt that the plants all originated from the same species . However, I'm not convinced that they are still the same species; can one assert that we have, through artificial selection, induced speciation? I believe this is more likely.
I will admit that the definition of "species" is subject to debate. The general definition to which I subscribe requires that two individuals are able to mate, produce offspring, and that can then mate and produce offspring of its own. A major shortcoming with this definition, however, is that it does not address Ring Species. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species
I'm not convinced that they are still the same species; can one assert that we have, through artificial selection, induced speciation?
One word: "dogs".
(Are you skeptical that chihuahuas and huskies are the same species? Some dog breeds are incapable of mating successfully without artificial insemination, or reproducing effectively -- think of a great dane foetus gestating in a female chihuahua -- but within a small single-digit number of generations they can produce hybridised "mutts" that are interfertile. Similarly, the brassicae are pretty much the same thing.)
I don't understand why you don't believe it. It's quite wide-spread knowledge, and a quick check doesn't show any signs that it's a wide-spread urban legend.
I noticed that your understanding of 'species' doesn't consider obligate parthenogenesis. There are, for example, some 50 species of lizard that only reproduce parthenogenetically. Under your definition, these are not a species because there is no mating. I submit that that is a much more critical shortcoming than a ring species.
Perhaps your objection is more based on a lack of knowledge than anything else?
The word 'believe' has no place in a scientific debate. Either you know or you don't know. What you believe does not enter into it, that means you need to do more research or read up on the research that has already been done.
Yes and they all are powerful goitrogenic plants. Don't eat them raw... unless you hate your thyroid! When I see people sipping on raw kale juice, I feel sorry for them! Raw is not always better! Would you eat raw potatoes, for example, or raw mushrooms (toxins), or spinach (rich in oxalates)?
If you have a healthy thyroid, raw kale is fine. Similarly, if you have healthy kidneys the amount of oxalates in raw kale or spinach shouldn't be a problem.
So tired of hearing this nonsense from people who read a few blog posts instead of asking their doctor.
I just looked this up in the PubMed biomedical literature database and there aren't many studies that correlate the goitrogenic activity of cabbages, et al., to human thyroid activity.
What's the impact of having kale juice once a day for a year? What if we simply consume extra iodine? Send links to papers if you have any primary references.
(Oh man, it was weird to look up "kale". Google translate seems to offer lots of suggestions that aren't exactly edible)
I eat mushrooms raw, quite a lot. You seem to think that this is a bad idea, but.. I wouldn't know why (and would certainly have a hard time believing that this is Not Good). It might help to present a bit of a disclaimer/"this is.where I'm coming from" statement in your post, before you start?
I eat raw broccoli and raw spinach even together in a salad. I can even go to the store and find raw spinach prepackaged in salads, claiming they are ready to eat.
I guess there are way too many kale sippers here as downvotes are piling up! Like the karma here will pay my bills. I guess the kale makes you aggressively vindictive. No, I don't have a PubMed article for that causation/correlation.
[+] [-] daveloyall|11 years ago|reply
You can make them at home, but it requires a lot of work and luck, since brassicas cross-breed if they are near each other at all.
[+] [-] riffraff|11 years ago|reply
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanesco_broccoli
[+] [-] ajb|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] technotony|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jakespencer|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dang|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Pirate-of-SV|11 years ago|reply
We call them: Grönkål, Blomkål, Vitkål, Broccoli, Brysselkål
[+] [-] bonchibuji|11 years ago|reply
lehtikaali, kukkakaali, kaali, parsakaali, ruusukaalikasveille
[+] [-] OmarIsmail|11 years ago|reply
We then looked up and saw that they're all part of the mustard family.
So if you're ever curious if a plant is part of the mustard family just let me taste it and I'll let you know... and then throw up on you.
[+] [-] taejo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BrainInAJar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] OedipusRex|11 years ago|reply
I believe we should be focusing on other types of food that are related like pickles and cucumbers.
[+] [-] acheron|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdturnerphys|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mcphage|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mmanfrin|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aamar|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stygiansonic|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mbreese|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] contingencies|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 31reasons|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] splawn|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] undersuit|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Houshalter|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sp332|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daveslash|11 years ago|reply
I will admit that the definition of "species" is subject to debate. The general definition to which I subscribe requires that two individuals are able to mate, produce offspring, and that can then mate and produce offspring of its own. A major shortcoming with this definition, however, is that it does not address Ring Species. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_species
[+] [-] cstross|11 years ago|reply
One word: "dogs".
(Are you skeptical that chihuahuas and huskies are the same species? Some dog breeds are incapable of mating successfully without artificial insemination, or reproducing effectively -- think of a great dane foetus gestating in a female chihuahua -- but within a small single-digit number of generations they can produce hybridised "mutts" that are interfertile. Similarly, the brassicae are pretty much the same thing.)
[+] [-] dalke|11 years ago|reply
I noticed that your understanding of 'species' doesn't consider obligate parthenogenesis. There are, for example, some 50 species of lizard that only reproduce parthenogenetically. Under your definition, these are not a species because there is no mating. I submit that that is a much more critical shortcoming than a ring species.
Perhaps your objection is more based on a lack of knowledge than anything else?
[+] [-] conwayanderson|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zo1|11 years ago|reply
But what I'll mention to you is: Have you not noticed how similar the taste is between some of these mentioned items?
[+] [-] hausen|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaekwon|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jacquesm|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kolev|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wcummings|11 years ago|reply
So tired of hearing this nonsense from people who read a few blog posts instead of asking their doctor.
[+] [-] ejstronge|11 years ago|reply
What's the impact of having kale juice once a day for a year? What if we simply consume extra iodine? Send links to papers if you have any primary references.
[+] [-] gohrt|11 years ago|reply
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goitrogen makes the same claims, but has a long list of indicted veggies, with notably missing/broken sources.
raw mushrooms and raw spinach are certainly popular...
[+] [-] darklajid|11 years ago|reply
I eat mushrooms raw, quite a lot. You seem to think that this is a bad idea, but.. I wouldn't know why (and would certainly have a hard time believing that this is Not Good). It might help to present a bit of a disclaimer/"this is.where I'm coming from" statement in your post, before you start?
[+] [-] freehunter|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kolev|11 years ago|reply