Genes of the wild cabbage: "yah man, we will turn this leafy body into whatever you like. That you are going to eat it? We don't mind a bit, as long as you make more copies of us; that's all that matters."
Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
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Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#42Because I love cabbage... the blog post shows "Gai lan" as an Asian example. There are so much more! You are probably aware of napa cabbage, but there's also Taiwan Cabbage (goes by other names of course...) https://www.westcoastseeds.com/products/taiwan-cabbage It looks a lot like a flatter "green/european" cabbage. It's leaves and stems are finer and softer than a European cabbage, while still being pretty crunchy…
Speaking of Asian vegetables, Brassica oleracea tends to get all the love because Europeans are more familiar with cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, collard greens, etc but Brassica rapa is perhaps even more diverse.
You might be familiar with turnips, bok choy, napa cabbage, and mizuna, but within Asia, there are a dizzying array of vegetables barely documented that are all derivatives of this weedy mustard.
Vegetables like Jima Turnip of the Tibetan plateau, Taicai, Wutacai, etc are hardly documented in English at all
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#43The canis lupis (or the better analogy canis familiaris?) of the plant world.
Though I’m struggling to think of a dish I actually enjoy from that plant group.
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#44It's amazing that it only takes centuries. Under natural selection, species traits stay relatively stable for thousands or even millions of years. I suppose that means natural selection tends to have more of a pronounced effect when there has been a severe environmental change that wipes out a large fraction of the population and leaves behind only those with adaptive mutations. Otherwise, the adaptive mutation stays…
It doesn't "take" centuries, it's just been going on for centuries. You can probably develop a very unique cultivar in a single lifetime. This is quite common in the horticultural industry and is especially feasible with weedy species like Brassicas
And the stability of the traits is mostly due to careful management. Most of these vegetables will very easily hybridize
In the Andes there are still traditional farmers that maintain over 300 varieties of potatoes. Each one has a name and a history. Some are only ornamental, some are only eaten in soups, some are medicinal, some are a bright purple, some are extremely long, some look like giant pinecones. Just look at the incredible images in this article
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/29/how-peru...
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#45If you liked this, you will be delighted to learn about the “Triangle of U”: the common brassicas are not just tetraploid, they are Frankensteinian mashups of earlier diploid species with different numbers of chromosomes! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_of_U
Just as fun is the Citrus triangle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citrus_taxonomy#/media/File:Ci...
Citrons, Pomelos, and True Manderins are the progenitor wild species that were hybridized to give us everything from clementines to grapefruit to key limes and more
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#46If you liked this, you will be delighted to learn about the “Triangle of U”: the common brassicas are not just tetraploid, they are Frankensteinian mashups of earlier diploid species with different numbers of chromosomes! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_of_U
Bonus trivia: unlike nearly all plants, brassicas make do without symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza
Yeah the family is pretty unique for not relying on mycorrhizal fungi but it does still rely on other fungi like Serendipita indica which is a basidiomycete fungus and acts as a facultative endophyte. Meaning it can live on its own in the soil but it can also develop inside plant roots and play many of the same roles mycorrhizal fungi play.
It's actually at the center of a lot of research attention right now for its potential to act as a booster for vegetables that DON'T make traditional mycorrhizal associations
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#47Not nearly as drastic as the cabbage case, but to me it’s also interesting that there are three ancestral, wild species of citrus fruit – mandarin, pomelo, and citron – and all the popular modern cultivars are hybrids of those three.
There's other wild citrus genes involved in there too for some species. https://www.jlauf.com/writing/citrus/
And there are also stuff like finger limes, kumquats, etc that don't at all fit into this citrus triangle
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#48What I appreciate most about these vegetables is that they're much lower in that pesky oxalic acid than most vegetables in the human diet.
Since we've been eating oxalic acid for millions of years I highly doubt it's a problem for us. In fact it acts as an antioxidant, can inhibit the growth of many bacteria/fungi, and can bind to heavy metals like lead and mercury.
It makes sense to avoid stuff high in oxalic acid if you're at risk of kidney stones but it seems silly to worry about something we've been consuming for longer than we've been a species for
Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#49What I appreciate most about these vegetables is that they're much lower in that pesky oxalic acid than most vegetables in the human diet.
Since we've been eating oxalic acid for millions of years I highly doubt it's a problem for us. In fact it acts as an antioxidant, can inhibit the growth of many bacteria/fungi, and can bind to heavy metals like lead and mercury. It makes sense to avoid stuff high in oxalic acid if you're at risk of kidney stones but it seems silly to worry about something we've been consuming for longer than we've been a species for
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Re: Centuries of selective breeding turned wild cabbage into different vegetables
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the sprouts trauma is the result of picking the wrong cooking method. I was so surprised when I tried baked sprouts for the first time (use a really host cast iron skilet for even better results) that I started to believe that every vegetable can be delicious as long as you bake it!
There’s many delicious and easy ways to eat vegetable! Two of my favorite: - Belgian Stoemp: basically smashed-potatoes with smashed-other legumes. Cook everything together (with herbs if you can), smash, add lipid and salt and you’re done! - German Ein Topf: put vegetables, beans and sausages in a pot (I use tofu ones or tempeh). Cover, cook slowly. It’s almost a salty Tajin from the north. - Recover bland vegetable…
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