What is Brassicaceae?
Brassicaceae, formerly known as Cruciferae, is the family of plants most often referred to as mustard or cabbage family. Brassicaceae, a large and important family, contains many common vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli, as well as ornamental plants such as Alyssum and weeds like Bittercress. The mustard family consists of approximately 330 genera and 3,700 species. The species generally have clusters of flowers with four petals forming a cross shape. The flowers are usually white or yellow, but may be red, blue, orange or pink. Especially ornamental flowers have greater diversity in the color of the petal. The circular arrangement of petals is what gave this family the original name Cruciferae.
annual or permanent Brassicaceae plants usually have two chamber seed pods and alternate leaves rising on their stems. These plants occur mostly in mild areas and southern hemisphere. With generally global distribution, Brassicaceae occurs most in the Mediterranean region.Many species also have glycosinolate, which gives them a smell that is characteristic of broccoli or cabbage.
The most popular plants in this family can be found in the family brassica . These plants include cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip and brushed sprouts. Commercial plants were domesticated and specifically bred to produce plants with excessive parts. The use of the plant usually determines which parts are disproportionately large. For example, cabbage has huge leaves, broccoli large flower buds and turnouts large roots.
Brassicaceae is called a mustard family because several species produce mustard. Brassica juncea is the most commonly used to produce mustard quality of spices. Horseradish, another spice, is the product aroracia lapatifolia , also in the family. Although not used to produce horseradish, radishes, raphanus sativus , they are also found in a mustard family.
other species are used in common foods. For example, Brassica Napis , also called a rape plant, has several commercial uses. The leaves are used in salads, whole seeds are found in bird seeds and the processed seeds are a component in rapeseed oil.
During the end of the twentieth century an attempt to increase scientific names more required a change in the name of the Cruciferae family. According to new instructions, the surname is needed for the suffix "-ceae" and begins with the most common or most important family in the family. Cruciferae thus became Brassicaceae after Brassica , which includes many commercially produced vegetables.