Brassica

Rape Brassica rapa, copyright Matt Lavin.

Belongs within: Brassicaceae.

Brassica is a genus of herbs native to Eurasia though some species have been introduced more or less worldwide through their cultivation for food (Hickman 1993).

Characters (from Hickman 1993): Annual, perennial; hairs simple. Stem erect, branched, glabrous above. Basal and lower cauline leaves petioled, dentate to pinnately lobed, lateral lobes shorter than terminal. Inflorescence terminal; bracts more or less absent. Flower with sepals erect; petals generally yellow. Fruit linear; valves 1-veined; beak conic or cylindric, with seeds absent or rarely 1–2. Seeds many, 1 row per chamber, spheric, finely to coarsely netted.

<==Brassica
    |--B. adpressa C06
    |--B. balearica C55
    |--B. carinata GM96
    |--B. chinensis H90 [=B. napus var. chinensis PT01]
    |    |--B. c. var. chinensis P88
    |    `--B. c. var. parachinensis P88
    |--B. cretica PT98
    |    |--B. c. ssp. cretica PT98
    |    `--B. c. ssp. aegaea PT98
    |--B. fimbriata H90
    |--B. fruticulosa H90
    |--B. hilarionis D30
    |--B. insularis C55
    |--B. juncea M99
    |--B. napus M99 [incl. B. campestris var. oleifera C06, B. napus var. oleifera TG88]
    |--B. nigra M99
    |--B. oleracea Linnaeus 1753 CD07
    |    |--B. o. var. olereacea M99
    |    |--B. o. var. acephala LS96
    |    |--B. o. var. botrytis M99
    |    |--B. o. var. capitata M99
    |    |--B. o. var. gemmifera H90
    |    `--B. o. var. italica M99
    |--B. pekinensis BMM99
    |--B. rapa H93 [=B. campestris var. rapa C06; incl. B. campestris H93]
    |    |--B. r. var. rapa H90
    |    `--B. r. var. sylvestris H90
    |--B. rutabaga CS77
    |--B. sinapistrum C06
    `--B. tournefortii KM08

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[BMM99] Braun, U., J. Mouchacca & E. H. C. McKenzie. 1999. Cercosporoid hyphomycetes from New Caledonia and some other South Pacific islands. New Zealand Journal of Botany 37: 297–327.

[C55] Candolle, A. de. 1855. Géographie Botanique Raisonée: Ou exposition des faits principaux et des lois concernant la distribution géographique des plantes de l’époque actuelle vol. 2. Librairie de Victor Masson: Paris.

[CD07] Cantino, P. D., J. A. Doyle, S. W. Graham, W. S. Judd, R. G. Olmstead, D. E. Soltis, P. S. Soltis & M. J. Donoghue. 2007. Towards a phylogenetic nomenclature of Tracheophyta. Taxon 56 (3): E1–E44.

[C06] Cheeseman, T. F. 1906. Manual of the New Zealand Flora. John Mackay, Government Printer: Wellington.

[CS77] Cramp, S., & K. E. L. Simmons (eds) 1977. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palaearctic vol. 1. Ostrich to Ducks. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

[D30] Druce, G. C. 1930. Account of a botanical tour in Cyprus. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London 141: 50–52.

[GM96] Griffiths, A. J. F., J. H. Miller, D. T. Suzuki, R. C. Lewontin & W. M. Gelbart. 1996. An Introduction to Genetic Analysis 6^th ed. W. H. Freeman and Company: New York.

[H90] Harden, G. J. (ed.) 1990. Flora of New South Wales vol. 1. New South Wales University Press.

[H93] Hickman, J. C. (ed.) 1993. The Jepson Manual: Higher Plants of California. University of California Press: Berkeley (California).

[KM08] Keighery, G. J., & W. Muir. 2008. Vegetation and vascular flora of Faure Island, Shark Bay, Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement 75: 11–19.

[LS96] Liu, T.-X., & P. A. Stansly. 1996. Morphology of Nephaspis oculatus and Delphastus pusillus (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae), predators of Bemisia argentifolii (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 98 (2): 292–300.

[M99] Matthews, M. 1999. Heliothine Moths of Australia: A guide to bollworms and related noctuid groups. CSIRO Publishing.

[PT98] Panitsa, M., & D. Tzanoudakis. 1998. Contribution to the study of the Greek flora: flora and vegetation of the E Aegean islands Agathonisi and Pharmakonisi. Willdenowia 28: 95–116.

[PT01] Pemberton, L. M. S., S.-L. Tsai, P. H. Lovell & P. J. Harris. 2001. Epidermal patterning in seedling roots of eudicotyledons. Annals of Botany 87: 649–654.

[P88] Polunin, I. 1988. Plants and Flowers of Malaysia. Times Editions: Singapore.

[TG88] Tepfer, D., A. Goldmann, N. Pamboukdjian, M. Maille, A. Lepingle, D. Chevalier, J. Dénarié & C. Rosenberg. 1988. A plasmid of Rhizobium meliloti 41 encodes catabolism of two compounds from root exudate of Calystegium sepium. Journal of Bacteriology 170 (3): 1153–1161.