A couple of years ago, we shared a chart that explained the different vegetables that all come from the plant species Brassica oleracea. The same can be said of the plant's cousin, Brassica rapa, from which we grow turnips, grelos, bok choy, mizuna, and broccoli rabe. A new study aims to find the geographical origin of B. rapa, which may have been domesticated as long as 6,000 years ago.
The work is a particular achievement when you consider both the diversity and global spread of B. rapa crops, wild relatives, and feral varieties that have escaped farmers’ fields, “taking over the world,” says Alex McAlvay, lead author of the study and a botanist at the New York Botanical Garden. Now, he says, B. rapa, in various forms, “grows from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. They grow in Oceania, they grow from Spain to Japan.
“You can go to San Diego, to the coast, and see wild Brassica rapa,” he adds. “But they’re not truly wild. They’re like the stray dogs that have escaped and formed their own pack in the woods.” B. rapa’s ability to survive as a feral plant worldwide had created a lot of uncertainty about its origins. Botanists often look to wild relatives of crops to help understand where the plants were first domesticated. But B. rapa is everywhere and, before the new research, distinguishing truly wild species from feral escapees was almost impossible.
The upside of B. rapa's ability to adapt to local conditions could make it very useful for communities dealing with the environmental flux of climate change. Read what we know and what we're trying to learn about B. rapa and the foods it provides at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Flickr user el Buho nº30)