Subject: non-botanist question-is broccoli a flower?

From: [email-masked] (Miguel Marcos)
Date: 14 Mar 1996 21:20:58 GMT

i have been having a discussion with colleagus about this. i clearly
remember reading somewhere that broccoli is considered a flower. is this
wrong? thanks. sorry for such an ingenuous question.

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Miguel A. Marcos                                                     J.P. Morgan
e: [email-masked]                          Emerging Markets Research
v: 212-648-1891                                                   60 Wall Street
f: 212-648-5051                                               New York, NY 10260

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From: [email-masked] (mel turner)
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 19:40:19

>wrong? thanks. sorry for such an ingenuous question.

Well, yes, broccoli is largely composed of flower buds [each of the many 
little green bits at the tips is a more-or-less still unopened young flower], 
but much of it is actually just stems.   

The general botanical term for a specialized flowering shoot or branch, 
including ones like this is an "inflorescence".    Cauliflower is closely 
comparable to broccoli;  both are forms of the same species [that also 
includes cabbage, brussels sprouts kohlrabi and several other vegetables].
mdt

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From: [email-masked] (Nancy Harrison)
Date: 19 Mar 1996 14:14:14 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, 
[email-masked] says...
>wrong? thanks. sorry for such an ingenuous question.

Broccoli, the whole plant, is a cultivar of regular old Mustard. What we
love to eat is the top part, which is the inflorescence, made up of many
tightly packed green flower buds. Watch them open, sometime, into the 
standard yellow Mustard flowers.
-- 
---Nancy Harrison ===SRJC Life Sciences/Botany===Santa Rosa, Calif.