Broccoli is a green vegetable that vaguely resembles a miniature tree. It belongs to the plant species known as Brassica oleracea.
It’s closely related to cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower — all edible plants collectively referred to as cruciferous vegetables. Broccoli is a human invention. It was bred out of the wild cabbage plant, Brassica oleracea . It was cultivated to have a specific taste and flavor that was more palatable to people.
Here's how that worked. Wild cabbage has small flower buds and is a biennial. That means it only flowers every other year.
In a controlled environment, it can be forced to reproduce itself many times. When an offspring of the plant with larger, tastier buds grows, gardeners threw away the less tasty plants and started reproducing from that one.
In future generations, there were further opportunities to get plants with larger, tastier buds. And other genes that make the process easier, such as plants that have a faster growing cycle emerged.
In selecting and reinforcing the traits enjoyed by more people, humans took wild cabbage and cultivated a new kind of plant altogether, broccoli.
