Home Page > Picture Archives > > Brassicaceae > Brassica rapa
Brassica rapa L.
Synonyms
Brassica campestris, Brassica dubiosa, Brassica napella, Brassica purpuraria, Brassica rutabaga
Common names
Field mustard, lift barri, wild turnip
My notes
Difficult to distinguish it from B. napus.
Brassica rapa L. is a plant consisting of various widely cultivated subspecies including the turnip (a root vegetable); the mizuna, napa cabbage, and cime di rapa (leaf vegetables); and the turnip rape (Brassica rapa subsp. oleifera, an oilseed which has many common names, including [annual] turnip rape, field mustard, bird rape, keblock, and colza).[+]
The oilseed is sometimes also called canola, which is one reason why it is sometimes confused with rapeseed oil, but this comes from a different Brassica species (Brassica napus). The oilseeds known as canola are sometimes particular varieties of Brassica rapa (termed Polish Canola) but usually the related species Brassica napus (rapeseed) and Brassica juncea (mustard greens).
In the 18th century the turnip and the oilseed-producing variants were seen as being different species by Carolus Linnaeus who named them B. rapa and B. campestris. 20th-century taxonomists found that the plants were cross fertile and thus belonged to the same species. Since the turnip had been named first by Linnaeus, the name Brassica rapa was adopted.
Many butterflies, including small white pollinate the B. rapa flowers.
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How the web page was created
- A list of plants with their common names was written using online sources and books.
- Web pages were written by a program consisting of several scripts.
- Full names, synonyms, and classification of plants were found online from catalogueoflife.org and theplantlist.org
using a script.
- Pictures of plants were selected from a database
using a script.
- This web page was written
using a script.
Acknowledgements
QNHG (Qatar Natural History Group) and associated people,
for a possibility to participate in their field excursions and to learn about local nature.