the.com/brassica
One genus pretending to be an entire produce aisle just to confuse you.
means The plant genus that includes cabbage, broccoli, kale, cauliflower, mustard, and turnips — one botanical family wearing dozens of costumes.
from From Latin brassica, the word the Romans used for cabbage itself. Its deeper root is uncertain — possibly linked to an old Celtic word for cabbage — but Latin is as far back as etymologists confidently go. The genus name was later adopted wholesale into botanical Latin, which is why one ancient word for 'cabbage' now quietly governs an entire vegetable bin's worth of disguises.
- same plant
- kale, cabbage, broccoli are one species, Brassica oleracea
- selective breeding
- humans sculpted that species into wildly different vegetables
- mustard oils
- pungent compounds exist to poison insects, not season your salad
- cauliflower math
- its florets approximate a fractal, self-repeating spiral pattern