Category:Brassicaceae

Brassicaceae
Winter cress, Barbarea vulgaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Brassicaceae Burnett[1]
Genera
See text.

Brassicaceae or Cruciferae is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family.

The family contains the cruciferous vegetables, including species such as Brassica oleracea (e.g., broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, collards), Brassica rapa (turnip, Chinese cabbage, etc.), Brassica napus (rapeseed, etc.), Raphanus sativus (common radish), Armoracia rusticana (horseradish), Matthiola (stock) and the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress).

Uses

Lunaria annua with ripe seed pods

Smelowskia americana is endemic to the midlatitude mountains of western North America.

The importance of this family for food crops has led to its selective breeding throughout history. Some examples of cruciferous food plants are the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, rapeseed, mustard, radish, horseradish, cress, wasabi, and watercress.

Matthiola (stock), Cheiranthus, Lobularia, and Iberis (candytufts) are appreciated for their flowers. Lunaria (honesty) is cultivated for the decorative value of the translucent replum of the round silicula that remains on the dried stems after dehiscence.

Genera

References

Acknowledgements

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Brassicaceae, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.