Xref: utzoo rec.food.cooking:18684 sci.bio:3210 rec.gardens:4460 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!ucbvax!agate!agate!hughes From: hughes@blizzard.Berkeley.EDU (Eric Hughes) Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking,sci.bio,rec.gardens Subject: Re: Broccoflower Message-ID: Date: 6 Jul 90 15:56:36 GMT References: <31477@cup.portal.com> Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Organization: ucb Lines: 35 In-reply-to: mmm@cup.portal.com's message of 6 Jul 90 04:58:15 GMT In article <31477@cup.portal.com> mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert Thorson) writes: >Anybody know the scoop on this "broccoflower" vegetable? I bought >one for $1.79 today after hearing about it on TV! >On TV, they said it is a cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower >which was discovered in a farm in Holland a couple of years ago. If I'm thinking of what you're thinking, this vegetable also goes by the name of Romanesco broccoli; it has pointed, spiraling flower arrangements and is a pale yellow-green. I have seen Romanesco broccoli in the J. L. Hudson seed catalog for three years (when I started getting it). In there it is listed as an Italian variety. As to its origins, well, broccoli and cauliflower are already two varieties of the same species, so interbreeding is trivial, although varietal cultivation to a replicable phenotype is not. FYI, all the following plants are members of the same species (data from _Growing and Saving Vegetable Seeds_, by Marc Rogers, from Garden Way Publishing, not the most reliable source for botanical information, but plenty fine for gardening): Cabbage (Brassica oleracea capitata) Broccoli (B. oleracea italica) Brussels sprouts (B. oleracea gemmifera) Cauliflower (B. oleracea botyris) Kale (B. oleracea acephala) Kohlrabi (B. oleracea caulorapa) Also included (but not listed) are mustard (both seed and greens), rape (whence rapeseed, whence rapeseed oil, aka canola oil), several Chinese varieties of brocolli, and collard greens. (I'm not sure about all of these myself; anybody have a reference?) Eric Hughes hughes@ocf.berkeley.edu ucbvax!ocf!hughes