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February 17, 2006 : Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco'
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Keywords: Brassicaceae | Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco'
![Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco'](http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/brassica_romanesco.jpg)
Today's image was photographed last September in a Venice market by Kimberly T of California (I'm not sure which Venice – California or Italy?). Many thanks, Kimberly!
A top-notch piece of writing on this plant exists online, so rather than trying to retell the story, I'm going to highly recommend you visit this page: Fractal Food: Self-Similarity on the Supermarket Shelf by John Walker, founder of Autodesk, Inc. and co-author of the well-known AutoCAD software. To give a hint of what you'll find on the article, John's divided his (released into the public domain) essay into a few parts: The Unclassifiable Romanesco, A Computational Universe?, Stalking the Vegetable with a Camera and Fixing Fractal Food – perfect Botany Photo of the Day fare.
Conservation resource link: “The Case of the Orchid Smugglers”, an article from Environment Canada's EnviroZine, tells the story of an illegal importation of protected orchids into Canada.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at February 17, 2006 3:00 AM
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Comments
Posted by: Justine at February 17, 2006 6:09 AM
Delicious to eat too, not just to look at.
Posted by: Jeremy Cherfas at February 17, 2006 8:11 AM
The link above doesn't work, but this one does.
Posted by: Diane Whitehead at February 17, 2006 8:43 AM
Thanks Daniel... Venice, Italy on our 25th wedding anniversary, 2006
Cheers -
Posted by: Kimberly T. at February 17, 2006 11:50 AM
Thanks Justine and Diane, I've fixed the link (and Justine, I've added you to the preapproved commenters list - for other readers, that's the reason for the double response, since Diane posted before I was able to approve Justine's post).
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at February 17, 2006 12:51 PM
Inspiring!! I have baby broccoli Romanesco growing in my garden right now, from seeds imported from Italy. I hope at least one of mine grows to look like your photo.
Posted by: Katherine at February 17, 2006 3:22 PM
Yeah, I once saw it in Food Co-op in Mount Vernon, WA and was so amazed. I stir-fried it with some regular broccoli and ham, which tasted really good, and of course, looked beautiful!
Posted by: Olive Oil at February 20, 2006 9:05 AM
Amazing! How or where can I buy some Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco' seeds ?
Posted by: Trish at February 21, 2006 10:10 PM
Search on Google or another search engine for:
site:com Romanesco seeds
(I noticed a few vendors)
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at February 21, 2006 10:15 PM
Would you be willing to make this one available at 1024x768? In paging back through the old entries, I find I still really love it.
Posted by: Courtney at April 24, 2006 2:18 PM
I'll see what I can do, Courtney - might take a few days, though.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at April 24, 2006 2:44 PM
Here's the photo at 1024x768: Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco'
![Brassica oleracea [Botrytis Group] 'Romanesco'](http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/romanesco1024.jpg){kind=link}
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at April 25, 2006 11:54 AM
Thank you!
Posted by: Courtney at April 29, 2006 11:45 AM
this is the craziest thing ive seen, i once saw it on the veggie market early morning, proof that God likes his psychedelics as well as us.
Posted by: sagun at February 8, 2007 1:22 PM
This cultivar is highly modified by humans. If you are specifically referring to the spiral pattern, that's often seen in nature and explainable by mathematics.
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin at February 8, 2007 5:03 PM
Thank you Dave for introducing me with new plant. It is so fascinating.
Posted by: Endang at February 17, 2009 5:29 PM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Amazing, beautiful photo. The link for the fractal food article is broken: it should be http://www.fourmilab.ch/images/Romanesco/