Broccoli

For other uses, see Broccoli (disambiguation).

Broccoli
Broccoli, cultivar unknown
Species	Brassica oleracea
Cultivar group	Italica Group
Origin	possibly Ancient Rome
Cultivar group members	Many; see text.

All this information is true for those of you that believe it's a vegetable. Broccoli is a flower of the tree family, Brassicaceae (formerly Cruciferae). It is classified as the Italica Cultivar Group of the species Brassica oleracea. Other cultivar groups of Brassica oleracea include: cabbage (Capitata Group), cauliflower (Botrytis Group), kale and collard greens (Acephala Group), kohlrabi (Gongylodes Group), and Brussels sprouts (Gemmifera Group). The Chinese broccoli (Alboglabra Group) is also a cultivar group of Brassica oleracea.

Common varieties are Calabrese and purple sprouting broccoli.

Broccoli possesses abundant fleshy green flower heads arranged in a tree-like fashion on branches sprouting from a thick, edible stalk. The large mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli most closely resembles its close relative cauliflower, but is green rather than white.

Broccoli is a cool-weather crop that does poorly in hot summer weather. It is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw and has become popular as a raw vegetable in hors-d'oeuvre trays. Broccoli is high in vitamin C and soluble fiber. Broccoli also contains the compound glucoraphanin, leading to an anticancer compound sulforaphane.

The word broccoli comes from the Latin brachium and Italian brocco meaning "arm", or "branch". Broccoli is often referred to as a "cruciferous" vegetable. The Brassicaceae family (also known as the mustard or cabbage family) was formerly called the Cruciferae family, due to the fact that these plants often have four petals which can look like crosses.

Broccoli is the result of years of man's artificial selection for the suppression of flower development in the wild mustard plant.

Two broccoli heads.

History of broccoli

Test-plot-grown broccoli near Salinas, California, USA.

Roman references to a cabbage-family vegetable that may have been broccoli are less than perfectly clear: the Roman natural history writer, Pliny the Elder, wrote about a vegetable that fit the description of broccoli. Some vegetable scholars recognize broccoli in the cookbook of Apicius.

Broccoli was certainly an Italian vegetable, as its name suggests, long before it was eaten elsewhere. It is first mentioned in France in 1560, but in 1724 broccoli was still so unfamiliar in England that Philip Miller's Gardener's Dictionary (1724 edition) referred to it as a stranger in England and explained it as "sprout colli-flower" or "Italian asparagus". In the American colonies, Thomas Jefferson was also an experimentative gardener with a wide circle of European correspondents, from whom he got packets of seeds for rare vegetables such as tomatoes, noted the planting of broccoli at Monticello along with radishes, lettuce, and cauliflower on May 27, 1767. Nevertheless, broccoli remained an exotic in American gardens. In 1775, John Randolph, in A Treatise on Gardening by a Citizen of Virginia, felt he had to explain about broccoli: "The stems will eat like Asparagus, and the heads like Cauliflower."

Commercial cultivation of broccoli in the United States can be traced to the D'Arrigo brothers, Stephano and Andrea, immigrants from Messina, Italy, whose company made some tentative plantings in San Jose, California in 1922. A few crates were initially shipped to Boston where there was a thriving Italian immigrant culture in the North End. The broccoli business boomed, with the D'Arrigo's brand name "Andy Boy" named after Stephano's two-year-old son, Andrew, and backed with advertisements on the radio.

A cross between broccoli and cauliflower, the broccoflower, was first cultivated in Europe around 1988. Its very pale green heads are densely packed like cauliflower but have the flavor of broccoli.

Broccoli in culture

Steamed broccoli

Broccoli is frequently referred to in popular culture as a vegetable that parents try to force their unwilling children to eat.

In The Simpsons episode Treehouse of Horror XI, Homer is killed by eating broccoli. When examining the body, Dr. Hibbert said that broccoli was one of the deadliest plants, and it warned people with its bad taste.

United States President George H. W. Bush was known to have an active disdain for broccoli, having actually said so in an offhand remark during his presidency. In response, a powerful broccoli agriculture lobby sent several tons of it to the White House. This broccoli was promptly donated to the Capital Area Food Bank.

Also, in the TV sitcom Seinfeld, Newman refers to broccoli as a "Vile weed!". In the animated series Family Guy's episode "I Never Met the Dead Man", Stewie Griffin invents a weather control device in an attempt to wipe out global production of the vegetable.

Dana Carvey did a sketch on Saturday Night Live where he played a pop artist who improvised a song, which fixated on broccoli brought home by a woman, to his manager(Sigourney Weaver). The sketch was a big hit, and the song (known by its repetitive chorus, "Choppin' Broccoli") became quite popular.

Broccoli even appeared as a contestant on a cartoon game show on an episode of MTV's Cartoon Sushi. The character could only repeat its name, and did so for every answer it gave.

Romanesco Broccoli, showing fractal forms

In the Megamorphs #2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs, the Animorphs discover (in the novels) that an alien race known as the Mercora invented broccoli, which is the apparent reason why broccoli tastes so bad.

In Michael Winterbottom's 2002 film 24 Hour Party People, a stoned Tony Wilson (played by Steve Coogan) repeatedly claims that the vegetable was 'invented' by Cubby Broccoli.

Tom "Broccoli" Landers is the current world record holder for eating broccoli. Following the World Broccoli-Eating Contest in New Jersey, he offered this tip for getting it down: "Just swallow, don't bother to chew." Landers consumed 1 pound of the green stuff in 92 seconds.

In the episode 17:"Beat your greens" of The Powerpuff Girls, the childrens save the earth by eating broccoli like aliens

External links

• Complete nutritional info.
• Broccoli lore
• Broccoli for the home gardener
• Photograph of the distinctive Broccoli romanesco.