Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of Brassica oleracea, is a leafy green, red (purple), or white biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage, and belongs to the "cole crops" or brassicas, meaning it is closely related to broccoli and cauliflower ; Brussels sprouts ; and Savoy cabbage.
A savoy cabbage and a cross section
The cabbage inflorescence, which appears in the plant's second year of growth, features white or yellow flowers, each with four perpendicularly arranged petals.
Cabbage
Harvesting cabbage, Tacuinum Sanitatis, 15th century
A cultivar is a kind of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and which retains those traits when propagated. Methods used to propagate cultivars include division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, or carefully controlled seed production. Most cultivars arise from deliberate human manipulation, but some originate from wild plants that have distinctive characteristics. Cultivar names are chosen according to rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants (ICNCP), and not all cultivated plants qualify as cultivars. Horticulturists generally believe the word cultivar was coined as a term meaning "cultivated variety".
Osteospermum 'Pink Whirls' A cultivar selected for its intriguing and colourful flowers
Liberty Hyde Bailey (1858–1954) coined the words cultigen in 1918 and cultivar in 1923.
Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, is considered a cultigen, and is a distinct species from other wheats according to the biological species concept. Many different cultivars have been created within this cultigen. Many other cultigens are not considered to be distinct species, and can be denominated otherwise.
A cultivar of the orchid genus Oncidium
