Subject: Collard greens

From: [email-masked] (Anne Marsden)
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 1995 14:21:58 GMT

I'm posting this to rph and sci.bio.botany, with two aims- to find out
what collard greens are, and whether they may be available in Europe
under another name, and to find out their relationship to cabbage. Why?
Cabbage is harmful to reptiles in large quantities, whereas collard
greens are recommended for frequent feeding.

Webster's third gives Collard Greens as 'Colewort' and both of them
>from  Cole or Kale, meaning *cabbage without a compact head*. 

Hi, sci.bio.botany! Can you tell us herp keepers on rec.pets.herp the
latin name of Collard greens and its relationship to Kale? And any
papers you know of relating to hypothyroidism in animals fed on cabbage
and kale, compared with collard? Is collard grown commercially in
europe? Is there a better newsgroup to pester about this, such as an
animal feed research newsgroup?

Anne Marsden

"...an alien who travels to earth in search of water for his drought
ridden plant." ---- Fusion Video blurb for 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.

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From: [email-masked] (Mark Garvin)
Date: 14 Jun 1995 21:08:47 -0400

>from Cole or Kale, meaning *cabbage without a compact head*. 

This is exactly the kind of thing that I'm concerned about regarding
printing a FAQ for new iguana owners.  Could collard greens be the
new 'spinach'?

Maybe some of the botanists could be persuaded to take a look
at the recommended foods lists to see if anything looks suspicious.
I guess the only thing we can do is go by current state of the
art, but I keep thinking about those books that recommended
spinach and broccoli.

I guess it's like Woody Allen's movie 'The Sleeper' where they
start cramming cigarettes into his mouth cause they found out
back in the 21st century that they're actually good for you <g>.

Thanks for taking the time to research this, Anne.

Regards,
Mark Garvin

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 14 Jun 95 20:59:27 -0500

> greens are recommended for frequent feeding.

Collard greens are some cultivars in the acephala group of Brassica
oleracea.   The acephala group also includes kale and borecale.

Other members of the species:

botrytis group: broccoli, cauliflower
capitatia group: cabbage
gemmifera group: brussels sprouts
gongyloides group: kohlrabi, knol-khol
italica group: sprouting broccolis, including calabrese
chinensis group: chinese cabbage, chinese mustard, pak-choi, choi sum, 
  Shantung cabbage
pekinensis group: pe-tsai, wong-bok, chihli, chinese cabbage
rapifera group: turnip

The taxonomy of cultivated plants is a big headache, because of the
human element of selection overlaying natural selection.

There are also a lot of other edible Brassica species, including
B. juncea (mustard greens; Indian mustard), B. napa (rape, swede,
rutabaga) etc.

Kay Klier  [email-masked]