Raphanobrassica
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||
|
Raphanobrassica includes all intergeneric hybrids between the genera Raphanus (radish) and Brassica (cabbages, etc). The name comes from the combination of the genus names for radish and cabbage. Some botanists prefer the alternative name Brassicoraphanus.
The first Raphanobrassica or "rabbage", an allopolyploid cross between the radish (Raphanus sativus) and cabbage (Brassica oleracea), was obtained by the Soviet agronomist Georgi Dmitrievich Karpechenko, a follower of Trofim Lysenko, in 1928, who hoped to create "a Vegetable of the Proletariet," that combined the nutritious root of the radish with the flavorful leaves of cabbage, with very little to go to waste. A meiotic accident occurred, allowing Karpechenko to produce fertile hybrids. Unfortunately for farmers, his resulting hybrid of this crossing had radish leaves and cabbage roots.
Plants of this parentage are now known as radicole. Two other fertile forms of Raphanobrassica are known. Raparadish, an allopolyploid bybrid between Raphanus sativus and Brassica rapa is grown as a fodder crop. "Raphanofortii" is the allopolyploid hybrid between Brassica tournefortii and Raphanus caudatus.
For biologists, however, the Raphanobrassica is an extremely interesting plant, because in spite of its hybrid nature it is not sterile. This led some botanists to propose that the accidental hybridization of a flower by pollen of another species in nature could be a mechanism of speciation common in higher plants. Currently, it is thought that a great part of the flowering plants have some hybridization among their ancestors, particularly in the case of the orchids.
Reference: Karpechenko, G.D., Polyploid hybrids of Raphanus sativus X Brassica oleracea L., Bull. Appl. Bot. 17:305-408 (1927)
