# Educate me on one of the finer points of botany, please (Brussels sprouts) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 14, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289 "2013-05-14T03:33:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/41 "2014-11-24T02:36:26Z")
Nice zombie, because I forgot it and this– > [@Gagundathar](#): > > Wow! > They are all cultivars of the same species? > > I am astounded. > What a remarkable set of phenotypic variations! > > I would have maybe posited the same genus, but the same species? Never. > Good thing I don’t make my money as a biologist. > 🙂 –gets a renewed +1, and I have something to add to the case of Canis lupus familiaris, the phenotypic variation of which I never fail to point out in conversation at the dog park (not only because it’s interesting but so I can sound smart and use the word “phenotype” in front of strangers). Also, speaking of salad greens, age has withered and custom staled my wit. I don’t get this, if I ever did: > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Rabbi Kohlrabi was known for adding horseradish to the Hollandaise sauce at the Passover Seder. > > > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > > > Who do you think invented the Kol Nidrei? > > > > > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > > > > > Does that mean we don’t have to pay to keep our Charter Member status? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/42 "2014-11-24T02:44:30Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > 😕 Moses and Aaron on a stick! ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/43 "2014-11-24T03:13:23Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Moses and Aaron on a stick! Still 😕 I know a :smack: or :smack::smack: is coming… ---
**Author:** ![EdwinAmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EdwinAmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwinAmi)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/44 "2014-11-24T05:23:40Z")
if it helps just call them “button cabbage”. That’s what they call it in other languages ---
**Author:** ![EdwinAmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EdwinAmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwinAmi)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/45 "2014-11-24T05:32:11Z")
> [@](#): > > It is actually possible to persuade individual brussels sprouts to root- someone I know is easily bored, and is trying to find out what happens if you plant them. This is true of most parts of most plants, but especially the fleshier parts of plants. Plants are like The Think from the Stephen King book movie, you know, the one with Kurt Russel. Every part is a potential new whole. Consider: potatoes are grown from other potatoes, ditto garlic and certain kinds of onions. Trees are often grown by planting twigs taken from other trees, or scarring a tree limb and wrapping dirt around it until it grows roots, then chopping that off and planting the root-dirt-bag. Most commonly, the top of one baby tree is chopped off, and the a twig from the desired-to-be-cloned tree is installed in the wound; plants have no active immune system, but they do heal wounds, so when the plants heal, the top tree is growing out of the roots of the bottom tree, making one whole new plant. This is called “grafting”. At the extreme, to avoid a certain very bad disease that’s been spreading, banana plantations will grow new banana trees from tiny slices of banana tree that are sterilized in a lab and cultures and grown into ne little baby trees. All this is a big part of the reason we even have agriculture. If a new plant can start from a part of an already-grown old plant, it has a lot more energy, plus an already-growing growing tip or embryo or whatever, so that it can grow quick. This principle especially applies to tuberous starchy staple crops, which are frequently grown from pieces of another starchy root ---
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/46 "2014-11-24T15:48:32Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Yes, but were they _Jerusalem_ Artichokes? 🙂 > > Mrs. Plant (v. 3.0) and I had them when we were kids in 1982 or thereabouts. > As I recall, we dipped them in butter. > > How do you artichokes aficionados eat them? > > Hollandaise would be nice. Jerusalem “artichokes” aren’t artichokes really. They are the root/tuber of a sunflower (_girasol_ corrupted to “Jerusalem”) that tastes like a true artichoke. And my preferred dip is mayonnaise with a little Dijon mustard, thinned with milk to a creamy consistency. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/47 "2014-11-24T17:49:06Z")
> [@MacLir](#): > > Jerusalem “artichokes” aren’t artichokes really. They are the root/tuber of a sunflower (_girasol_ corrupted to “Jerusalem”) that tastes like a true artichoke. > > And my preferred dip is mayonnaise with a little Dijon mustard, thinned with milk to a creamy consistency. They’re also in the same family (different ‘tribes’ though) as true artichokes- Asteraceae, the daisy family. Caution: I’ve never eaten Jerusalem artichokes (I’ve used them for an experiment), but they store carbohydrates in the form of fructans, which are apparently hard for some people to digest and cause some discomfort. ---
**Author:** ![Hector\_St\_Clare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5ac83/32.png) [@Hector\_St\_Clare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hector_St_Clare)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/48 "2014-11-24T17:50:35Z")
> [@EdwinAmi](#): > > All this is a big part of the reason we even have agriculture. If a new plant can start from a part of an already-grown old plant, it has a lot more energy, plus an already-growing growing tip or embryo or whatever, so that it can grow quick. This principle especially applies to tuberous starchy staple crops, which are frequently grown from pieces of another starchy root Also, reproducing a plant from vegetative tissue (like roots) has the advantage that the offspring will be a genetic clone of the parent, which isn’t true if you reproduce a cross-pollinating plant from seed. ---
**Author:** ![pdunderhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4bbf92/32.png) [@pdunderhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pdunderhill)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/49 "2014-11-24T21:07:12Z")
As an addendum what happens to the various Brassicas that make them very tasty raw but inedible, at least to me, when cooked? Peter ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/50 "2014-11-24T21:54:53Z")
> [@EdwinAmi](#): > > This is true of most parts of most plants, but especially the fleshier parts of plants. > > Plants are like The Think from the Stephen King book movie, you know, the one with Kurt Russel. Every part is a potential new whole. Consider: potatoes are grown from other potatoes, ditto garlic and certain kinds of onions. Trees are often grown by planting twigs taken from other trees, or scarring a tree limb and wrapping dirt around it until it grows roots, then chopping that off and planting the root-dirt-bag. Most commonly, the top of one baby tree is chopped off, and the a twig from the desired-to-be-cloned tree is installed in the wound; plants have no active immune system, but they do heal wounds, so when the plants heal, the top tree is growing out of the roots of the bottom tree, making one whole new plant. This is called “grafting”. At the extreme, to avoid a certain very bad disease that’s been spreading, banana plantations will grow new banana trees from tiny slices of banana tree that are sterilized in a lab and cultures and grown into ne little baby trees. > > All this is a big part of the reason we even have agriculture. If a new plant can start from a part of an already-grown old plant, it has a lot more energy, plus an already-growing growing tip or embryo or whatever, so that it can grow quick. This principle especially applies to tuberous starchy staple crops, which are frequently grown from pieces of another starchy root I’m more than a little anxious here about the roots (heh) of my knowledge of the world…so what are seeds, then? Backup? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/51 "2014-11-24T22:45:57Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I’m more than a little anxious here about the roots (heh) of my knowledge of the world…so what are seeds, then? Backup? Sexual reproduction. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/52 "2014-11-24T22:47:07Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Sexual reproduction. 🙂 True dat. I shouldn’t even be talking to you until you explain your joke. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/53 "2014-11-24T23:00:27Z")
Asexual reproduction, sticking a branch in the ground and rooting it, produces a clone just like the plant it came from. Seeds allow genes to be used, so that the plant can vary. Bigger or smaller fruit, for example, or more colorful blooms. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/54 "2014-11-24T23:18:14Z")
Yes, duh…\…I got that… just because I can’t get a joke doesn’t mean I’m not smaaht, like Fredo… ETA: OIC…maybe you thought that I thought that “sexual reproduction” was the joke I didn’t get and needed to be explained. Because of the smiley. In which case you’re forgiven this most recent non-insult. It’s the other joke, goddamnit. Having said that, I don’t see the point of the smiley. More evidence that your and my concept of jokes may never overlap. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/55 "2014-11-24T23:29:52Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Also, speaking of salad greens, age has withered and custom staled my wit. I don’t get this, if I ever did: I’m still waiting for someone to make a connection between Kol Nidrei and Jerusalem artichokes. ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_York](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f6c823/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_York](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_York)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2014, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/56 "2014-11-24T23:43:59Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Just eat your damn Brussels sprouts. > > They’re quite tasty steamed or sauteed, you know. My wife cuts them into quarters length ways, (or sometimes just shreds them) place in frying pan, add a little water with beef stock and chopped garlic. Stir fry till slightly brown. You can also add a bit of black bean sauce. They taste magnificent. ---
**Author:** ![EdwinAmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@EdwinAmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EdwinAmi)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/57 "2014-11-25T00:43:37Z")
> [@](#): > > which isn’t true if you reproduce a cross-pollinating plant from seed Yup, but while we’re on the subject, let’s clarify one more thingy for the gardening-uninitiated. A LOT of plants, while grown from seed, still don’t or just barely engage in full-on sexual reproduction because the flower fertilizes itself. Legume flowers, for instance, are encased in two flower petals that are closed and form a little compartment. Inside the compartment, at some point, since the wind and stuff always causes some motion, the sitgmas eventually touch the anthers (the penies touch the ginies). It might not be stigma and anther, I may have confused the terms. All self-pollinating flowers do this, not just legumes. This is technically sexual reproduction, but since the mom and dad are the same individual, there is very little genetic variation, and so the offspring, the seeds, come up very “true to seed”, which means grow up having the same or close to all the parent’s traits. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/58 "2014-11-25T03:20:13Z")
Did you know that if you boil Brussels sprouts too long, they start to stink? Well, I call it stink, others call it an “odor.” ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/59 "2014-11-25T11:21:19Z")
Well they are cabbage. I don’t get the Kolrabi stuff either. Break it down for the non Jew. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/60 "2014-11-25T13:15:43Z")
> [@Savannah](#): > > I once spent a pleasant evening on Wikipedia reading all about the brassica family. Great line for an Internet dating site profile. 🙂 Since we’re back on brussels sprouts - I just picked a big batch for Thanksgiving. Still weighing sauteed versus steaming (may go with both options). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289.md?page=4)