And Now, In Living Color... Cauliflower?

[OldGuy43]

So we were in this "upscale" market yesterday, and saw cauliflower in multiple colors. Green, orange and purple as well as the traditional white. It cost over $3/pound, but it sure was pretty. I'd never heard of this before. Anyone know anything about it?

 

[897tgigvib]

Yep Old Guy, they have a variety called Cheddar, and several purple colored varieties. There are also several varieties that are green. I understand that all varieties of cauliflower can give several shades of their normal perfect color too depending on if you blanche them, and how you blanche them...duriung the flower head's growing period.

Broccoli and Cauliflower are really just wide ranged varieties of the same species, and breeders can and do easily cross them. The only trick is getting them to bloom at the same time, which experienced growers, not me, can do easily. Some of the color shades, like the green ones especially, are descended from such a cross.

I am sure that breeders working with Cauliflower have even more shades up their sleeves but are still working at getting them to head up right or be healthy, or larger, things like that.

Romanesco spiral flowered cauliflower in colors is likely just around the corner. Lacinato dinosaur kale leaved Cauliflowers will likely soon appear, and there will probably be available within 10 years, Cauliflower varieties that side sprout purple sprouting broccoli.

That "Cole" species brassica has a lot of diversity in it!
To add to that, brassica has "sister" species that expert plant breeders are sometimes able to cross with brassica, and a thing called "polyploid chromosome counts" happens.

That kind of wide cross does indeed happen naturally, and is most definitely NOT any kind of GMO work or the like. The who Brassicaceae family has a lot of species that are the result of polyploid wide crossing millions of years ago, and some much more recently. What happens, short version, is, say a turnip crosses with a pak choy. they have different numbers of chromosomes, but for some reason it worked one tiome. It worked because in the embryonic seed development during the first cell division, the 2 second cells merged their chromosomes so that the chromosome number doubles. That makes it possible for all the chromosomes to have a match during their next mitosis so that compared to the haploid state their are 4 times the number of divided chromosomes.

ok, that's not simple That's why i can't do it...

But what happens a long time later is that the new species begins to revert to a new normal number of chromomes. Nobody knows why.

what it means for the future of plant breeding is one day there may well be a variety of chinese cabbage with a nice turnip for a root, a splendid large succulent kohlrabi with a rutabaga root, or multi headed cabbages, coming soon to a seed catalog near you. Not because of any gmo frankenplant work, but from normal processes of breeding...even though some of it is complicated.

 

[nittygrittydirtdigger]

And that /\ is why I love coming to TEG.....the wide range of information is just amazing. I knew about the cheddar and purple cauliflowers, but I didn't know about the genetic aspects. And all those other plants-of-the-future? Wow!

 

[vfem]

I wanna try my hand at all those pretty colored cauliflower! Looks like I'll take a shot in the spring.

 

[hoodat]

Be aware that when cooked, all cauliflower, no matter what color you started with, turn the same color. They're pretty in salads raw but hardly worth the extra cost otherwise.

 

[baymule]

I planted Purple of Sicily cauliflower from seed. The plants are growing, hoping they make some intresting colored cauliflower.

 

[Jared77]

I prefer my cauliflower and broccoli it raw anyway. I had no idea when cooked though they revert to the same color.

Marshall's right with the chromosomes. It happens in nature because one of the parent cells (egg or sperm) that is fertilized has an extra chromosome, or is missing one so the chromosomes can match up with the correct number, otherwise it would stop developing. Once this happens and the chromosomes can align and pair off, this allows for the daughter cells to copy correctly and actually develop into a full grown plant or animal or whatever was growing.

Then IF its something like a plant that can produce multiple seeds you could get multiple copies of that same mutation. Then if those plants were to pollinate each other then whats called linebreeding occurs and the traits are doubled up and reinforced and the trait continues.

Marshall I think they get the timing right by isolating the plants and create ideal conditions light, temperature etc to get them to bloom, then do the pollinating themselves. Plus I'm sure they have huge flats of the plants started so they can eventually get something to time right. They play the odds. And for us small growers who lack the resources to have these things its a lot tougher for us to make such pairings. That's why I have so much respect for people who created a new variety. Its not easy.

 

[catjac1975]

I have not had any luck growing colored varieties of broccoli, and carrots. I have found the germination of them to be poor for me.

 

[catjac1975]

I have read that colored veggies have more vitamins than the normal varieties.

 

[hoodat]

I have read that colored veggies have more vitamins than the normal varieties.

I don't know about vitamins but the rule of thumb is the closer a vegetable gets to dark colors (especially purple) the more anti oxidants it has. Purple grapes, for instance, have more anti oxidants than whie ones and the darker the wine the more it has.