ESSEX BOTANY AND MYCOLOGY GROUPS |
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__________________________________________________________________________________ Brassica oleracea var. oleracea Wild Cabbage __________________________________________________________________________________________ Essex status: Arable escape.
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This is the so-called Wild Cabbage of sea cliffs. Unfortunately, the var. capitata (Cultivated Cabbage) rapidly reverts after a few generations in the wild, and in any case it is none too certain that the cliff cabbages in the U.K. are anything other than long established reverted escapes from cultivation as far back as Roman times. Edward Forster (c.1800) recorded var. oleracea from the cliffs at Southend (then only a small town with crumbling London Clay cliffs), but Gibson (1862) regarded the plants as being reverted escapes from cultivation. Thus we have no evidence that the genuine Wild Cabbage has ever occurred in Essex. Furthermore there would seem to be little point in recording occurrences of odd plants of var. capitata persisting after a cabbage crop. |