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rom "broccoli" to "Brussels sprouts": How have these familiar vegetables quietly changed their appearance over thousands of years
Green vegetables such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts and kale have become an indispensable ingredient in today's diet. However, do you know how these vegetables have quietly changed throughout history? These changes not only represent human choices and preferences for food, but also reflect the adaptation and evolution of plants themselves.
Origin of the plant: Brassica oleracea
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) belongs to the cruciferous family. It originally evolved from wild cabbage and is native to the Mediterranean region. Its cultivation history can be traced back to the Greek and Roman eras thousands of years ago. According to
"Historical sources indicate that several varieties of cabbage were mentioned in ancient texts, including smooth-leaved, curly-leaved, and wild types."
This suggests early diversity and the impact of human selection.
Artificial selection by humans has led to the gradual emergence of variants with different appearances, based on preferences for leaves, buds, and stems. For example, around the fifth century B.C., people began cultivating larger, thicker leaves based on their love for leaves, which eventually led to what we now know as cabbage.
Over time, the demand for different plant parts led to further evolution of the species, for example, people began to prefer the cultivation of cauliflower around the consumption of immature sprouts, a trend that peaked around the first century AD , forming the diverse forms that we are familiar with today.
Diversity of breed groups
According to the Royal Botanic Gardens, B. oleracea is divided into eight major groups, each of which contains many different variants, as shown below:
“Acephala (non-heading varieties) include cabbage, kale, etc.; Botrytis (heading varieties) include cauliflower and cabbage.”
Such classification not only helps us understand the relationship between various types of plants, but also shows the diversity of human choice of vegetable varieties.
Among the human senses, taste perception affects our preference for various vegetables, and this perception is closely related to genes. Studies have shown that the TAS2R38 gene is a gene related to bitter taste perception, and different versions of this gene (alleles) affect people's preference for bitter vegetables such as cabbage.
According to research, different gene variants can lead to differences in taste perception between individuals, which makes some people hate bitter vegetables, while others are relatively insensitive, which plays a role in our choices in eating habits. It has a huge impact.
The future of vegetables: from selection to growth
A series of human choices have not only changed the appearance of these vegetables, but also affected how they grow and reproduce. As we learn more about plants, can we use this knowledge to develop new types of vegetables that are more nutritious and disease-resistant in the future?
