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Brassica napus rapifera
Rutabaga, also called swede, is a cool-season root vegetable and a hybrid of cabbage and turnip. It is grown for its large, sweet, yellow-orange root and its edible leaves.
Rutabaga ( ROO-tə-BAY-gə; North American English) or swede (British English and some Commonwealth English) is a root vegetable, a form of Brassica napus (which also includes rapeseed). Other names include Swedish turnip, neep (Scots), and turnip (Scottish and Canadian English, Irish English, Cornish English and Manx English, as well as some dialects of English in Northern England, New England English, and Australian English). However, elsewhere, the name turnip usually refers to the related white turnip.
The species B. napus originated as a hybrid between the cabbage (B. oleracea) and the turnip (B. rapa). Rutabaga roots are eaten as human food in various ways, and the leaves can be eaten as a leaf vegetable. The roots and tops are also used for livestock, fed directly in the winter or foraged in the field during the other seasons.
Rutabaga and other cyanoglucoside-containing foods (including cassava, maize (corn), bamboo shoots, sweet potatoes, and lima beans) release cyanide, which is subsequently detoxified into thiocyanate. Thiocyanate inhibits thyroid iodide transport and, at high doses, competes with iodide in the organification process within thyroid tissue. Goitres may develop when there is a dietary imbalance of thiocyanate-containing food in excess of iodine consumption, and these compounds can contribute to hypothyroidism. Yet, there have been no reports of ill effects in humans from the consumption of glucosinolates from normal amounts of Brassica vegetables. Glucosinolate content in Brassica vegetables is around one percent of dry matter. These compounds also cause the bitter taste of rutabaga.
As with watercress, mustard greens, turnip, broccoli, and horseradish, human perception of bitterness in rutabaga is governed by a gene affecting the TAS2R bitter receptor, which detects the glucosinolates in rutabaga.
Abyssinian mustard · Mustard · Zha cai · India mustard · Rapeseed · Tatsoi · Rhamphospermum nigrum · Gai lan · Cauliflower · Cabbage · Brussels sprout · Kohlrabi
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Rutabaga by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
