# 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:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MacLir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9e8a1a/32.png) [@MacLir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacLir)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/61 "2014-11-25T14:55:34Z")
> [@pdunderhill](#): > > As an addendum what happens to the various Brassicas that make them very tasty raw but inedible, at least to me, when cooked? > > Peter Probably the Phenylthiocarbamide (PTC), also known as phenylthiourea (PTU). This is a defense against “predation” by the plant. Some people find it bitter, but others do not taste it, possibly as a counter-adaptation. Although I don’t see where the cooking would come into it, unless it deactivates something that was masking the effect. Do you know if you’re a PTU non-taster or not? You were likely tested at some point in school - it’s a common demonstration in biology. Put a slip of paper like litmus paper on your tongue and some of the class makes a face :dubious: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/62 "2014-11-25T16:16:39Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Well they are cabbage. > > I don’t get the Kolrabi stuff either. Break it down for the non Jew. kolrabi \<–\> rabbi (maybe?) ---
**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 25, 2014, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/63 "2014-11-25T17:27:32Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > kolrabi \<–\> rabbi (maybe?) Kol nidre means “all vows”, subject to being corrected by Rosie, so perhaps “Kolrabi” means, “all rabbis”. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/64 "2014-11-25T18:04:38Z")
I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it. ---
**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 25, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/65 "2014-11-25T18:12:32Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > I say it’s spinach and I say the hell with it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/66 "2014-11-25T22:18:51Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Kol nidre means “all vows”, subject to being corrected by Rosie, so perhaps “Kolrabi” means, “all rabbis”. You know what’s the _real_ joke about Kohlrabi? The joke lays in the notion that I was joking when I wrote that I thought Kohlrabi was a medieval Jewish Talmudic scholar/philosopher. When, in fact, the reality is that _I wasn’t joking!_ For much of my life, I had only occasionally heard the word, and never picked up on the association that it’s just a vegetable, and I just thought the word _sounded_ like it just _had_ to be the name of a medieval Jewish scholar! Yes, I really spent much of my life thinking that (on the infrequent occasion that I thought about it at all). It was only about 10 years ago that I first noticed that kohlrabi is (wait for it . . . ) a _vegetable._ ---
**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 25, 2014, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/67 "2014-11-25T22:28:03Z")
You did not check with Rabbi Google? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2014, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/68 "2014-11-26T07:58:26Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > You did not check with Rabbi Google? > 🙂 I’m talking about, like, the last 40 years, like, in the medieval days of Rabbi Kohl himself, before Rabbi Google! How did a vegetable ever acquire a name like that anyway? ( 🙂 Yes, [Reb Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi) gives an explanation.) ---
**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 26, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/69 "2014-11-26T13:38:43Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > How did a vegetable ever acquire a name like that anyway? ( 🙂 Yes, [Reb Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi) gives an explanation.) Thanks, Senegoid! Having seen it, I recall eating one raw once. Tasty. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/70 "2014-11-27T00:56:58Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It was only about 10 years ago that I first noticed that kohlrabi is (wait for it . . . ) a _vegetable._ Wait, kohlrabi is a vegetable? Is that how that word entered this thread? See what I meant about breaking it down to basics? ---
**Author:** ![MsBatt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@MsBatt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsBatt)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/71 "2014-11-27T01:48:09Z")
EdwinAmi writes : “Plants are like The Think from the Stephen King book movie, you know, the one with Kurt Russel.” This move was not based on a Stephen King boook, but on a short story by the late John W. Campbell, titled “Who Goes There?” It’s far scarier than any of the movies based on it. ---
**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 27, 2014, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/72 "2014-11-27T02:59:05Z")
> [@MsBatt](#): > > This move was not based on a Stephen King boook, but on a short story by the late John W. Campbell, titled “Who Goes There?” It’s far scarier than any of the movies based on it. Yes, it built an aircraft. Watch the skies! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/73 "2014-11-27T07:10:41Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Wait, kohlrabi is a vegetable? Is that how that word entered this thread? Goes all the way back to Post #4. (What did _you_ think kohlrabi was? 🙂 ) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/74 "2014-11-27T20:13:39Z")
I had no clue. ---
**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 27, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/75 "2014-11-27T20:26:43Z")
People who followed Pogo know that kohlrabi is a [_disease_](http://www.network54.com/Forum/258202/thread/1151083983/Kohlrabi-what+to+do+with+this-...). ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289/76 "2014-11-28T19:08:38Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Yes, I’ve seen plenty of artichokes left unharvested that then bloomed. Artichokes are giant thistles. > > Here you go: > > [bloomed artichoke - Google Search](https://www.google.com/search?q=bloomed+artichoke&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=McmSUbm2COWTiAKd9YDwAw&sqi=2&ved=0CC4QsAQ&biw=1398&bih=833) Thank you for that! What a gorgeous pageful of color. I love artichokes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/educate-me-on-one-of-the-finer-points-of-botany-please-brussels-sprouts/658289.md?page=3)