All angiosperms (flowering) plants are divided into monocots and dicots. The first class includes such families as lily, onion, cereal, orchid, palm, aroid, sedge. The second includes all the rest, for example, rosaceous, magnolia, pumpkin, walnut, birch and so on. Plants belonging to each of the mentioned classes have individual features in their structure.
The place of cruciferous in the classification of living beings
All representatives of the cabbage family have the following position in the classification of living organisms:
- domain - eukaryotes;
- kingdom - plants;
- department - angiosperms (flowering);
- class - bipartite;
- order - cruciferous;
- family - cruciferous (cabbage).
Also, this family, in turn, is divided into genera. The name of the genus to which a species belongs can often be recognized from the name of the latter. For example, white cabbage belongs to the cabbage genus (it alsorapeseed is also included), field mustard - to the genus Mustard, etc.
Main 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 heartwood, turnips, mustard, lettuce, horseradish and other vegetables and herbs, as well as many weeds (for example, shepherd's purse), some of which are very difficult to eradicate. The life form of representatives of this group varies from grasses to shrubs or semi-shrubs. The main features of cruciferous plants are that they all have a flower, which contains four sepals, four petals, six stamens and one pistil. The fruit of the cabbage is represented by a pod (less often - a pod or a nut), they can vary in size and shape. Their seeds are rich in oils and spread mainly by wind. Cruciferous plants with a fruit in the form of a pod include shepherd's purse, field yarutka and others, with a nut - dyeing woad and eastern sverbiga. Cruciferous plants, like all other dicots, have leaves with a reticulate type of venation. The root system is pivotal, that is, there is a pronounced main root and side ones growing from it. Flowers are usually collected in racemes.
Ornamental cruciferous plants
This group can be attributed to the left. This plant has large flowers of various colors, collected in lush inflorescences, about 50 cm high.grown both in flowerpots and in open ground. Also included here is the 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 ornamental 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. Yellow violet 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 frequently used cruciferous plants in the rural industry are white cabbage and cauliflower. They have a number of useful properties, in particular, they contain rare vitamins - U and K, and there are also vitamins of groups B and C in large quantities. 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, among which you can grab magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron and others. Cabbage, especially its juice, helps to effectively 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). Also among the cruciferous there are foddercrops such as turnips, kale, rapeseed. All of them are saturated with microelements (phosphorus, sodium, calcium), vitamin B2, contain a certain amount of proteins. Another fodder cruciferous plant is swede. In addition to the above substances, it is also rich in vitamin C, but contains fewer trace elements. For the same purpose, bee bread is used - a hybrid of fodder cabbage and rapeseed.
More cruciferous plants are widely used in agriculture as oilseeds. This group includes, first of all, rapeseed, the seeds of which are fifty percent oil, as well as mustard. The oil of the first plant is used only for technical purposes, for example, when hardening steel. The second - in the food industry: in the production of canned food and margarine. As vegetable crops, in addition to cabbage, radishes and radishes are also often grown, as well as mustard, horseradish are used as a seasoning. The beneficial properties of these plants are also worth remembering. Radishes are rich in B, PP, C vitamins, calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. In addition, it contains phytoncides. Horseradish contains such useful substances as vitamin C (it even contains more than lemon), PP, B, sodium, sulfur, potassium, phosphorus, iron; carotene is present in its leaves. Radish is one of the most useful vegetables, it is rich in vitamins PP, B, C, carotene, lysocin, pantothenic acid.
