All angiosperms (flowering) plants are divided into monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous. The first class includes such families as lily, onion, cereal, orchid, palm, aroid, sedge. The second one includes all the others, for example, pink, magnolia, pumpkin, nut, birch and so on. Plants belonging to each of the mentioned classes have individual features in their structure.
The place of crucifers in the classification of living things
All representatives of the cabbage family have the following position in the classification of living organisms:
- domain - eukaryotes;
- the kingdom is plants;
- department - angiosperms (flowering);
- class - dicotyledonous;
- order - cruciferous;
- family - cruciferous (cabbage).
Also, this family, in turn, is divided into childbirth. The name of the genus to which a species belongs can often be learned from the name of the latter. For example, white cabbage belongs to the genus cabbage (rapeseed is also included in it), field mustard belongs to the genus Mustard, etc.
Key features of cruciferous plants
These plants are also called cabbage. This family has a total of about three thousand species. This includes plants such as core, turnip, mustard, lettuce, horseradish and other vegetables and greens, as well as many weeds (for example, a shepherd’s bag), some of which are very difficult to eradicate. The life form of representatives of this group varies from herbs to shrubs or shrubs. The main features of cruciferous plants are that they all have a flower, which includes four sepals, four petals, six stamens and one pistil. The cabbage fruit is represented by a pod (less often - a pod or nut), they can vary in size and shape. Their seeds are rich in oils, distributed mainly by the wind. Cruciferous with a fruit in the form of a pod include a shepherd’s bag, a field yurt and others, with a nut - a dyeing wajda and an oriental overbig. Cruciferous plants, like all other dicotyledons, have leaves with a mesh type of venation. The root system is the core system, that is, there is a pronounced main root and side ones growing from it. Flowers are usually collected in inflorescences like brush.
Decorative cruciferous plants
This group can be attributed to Levka. This plant has large flowers of various colors, collected in lush inflorescences, about 50 cm high. They are grown both in flowerpots and in open ground. It also includes wallflower, which can often be found in the garden. In addition, there are some types of cabbage with colored leaves, which are sometimes grown for decorative purposes.
Poisonous plants of the cabbage family
Few people know which cruciferous plants are considered poisonous. These include the same wallflower. This plant has narrow long leaves and large rich yellow flowers, collected in inflorescences-brushes. Wallflower juice contains toxic substances such as glycosides. When ingested, they negatively affect the circulatory system, directly on the muscles of the heart.
Cabbage in industry and agriculture
The most famous, widespread and often used in rural industry cruciferous plants are cabbage and cauliflower. They have a number of useful properties, in particular, they include rare vitamins - U and K, also there are a large number of vitamins B and C. Another advantage of cabbage is the absence of sucrose and starch in it, so it can be considered a completely dietary product . It also contains many trace elements, including magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron, and wood. Cabbage, in particular its juice, helps to cleanse the body and improve the functioning of the liver and spleen (thanks to vitamin U, which, by the way, is also found in turnips). There are also forage crops among cruciferous plants, such as turnips, fodder cabbage, and rape. All of them are saturated with trace elements (phosphorus, sodium, calcium), vitamin B2, contain a certain amount of protein. Another feed cruciferous plant is rutabaga. In addition to the above substances, it is also rich in vitamin C, but contains fewer trace elements. For the same purposes, they use bee bread - a hybrid of forage cabbage and rapeseed.
Still cruciferous plants are widely used in agriculture as oilseeds. This group includes, first of all, rapeseed, the seeds of which are fifty percent composed of oils, as well as mustard. The oil of the first plant is used only for technical purposes, for example, when hardening steel. The second is in the food industry: in the production of canned food and margarine. In addition to cabbage, radish and radish are also often grown as vegetable crops; the same mustard and horseradish are used as seasoning. The beneficial properties of these plants are also worth recalling. Radish is rich in vitamins of group B, PP, C, calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus. In addition, it contains volatile. Horseradish contains such beneficial substances as vitamin C (it contains even more than lemon), PP, B, sodium, sulfur, potassium, phosphorus, and iron; carotene is present in its leaves. Radish is one of the most useful vegetables, it is rich in vitamins PP, B, C, carotene, lysozin, pantothenic acid.