Beautiful (Interspecific) Brassicaceae project

[Garrett Schantz]

The buds are now yellow on the plant with a ton of buds. I might be able to figure out the species with the flowers.
No spiciness to the buds, some of the other plants have a spiciness to them.

This is my first year planting turnips - I prefer radishes so I haven't grown them in the past. I'm doubting that this is a radish cross due to them being in a different genus. Some brassicas just have large taproots.

I also planted rutabaga and kohlrabi - some other brassica types.


The radish looking plants have black roots, so those are definitely black spanish. The leaf shapes on both of those plants differ a bit, and one of them has glossy - smooth leaves.

[Garrett Schantz]

It has been almost a month since my last post. Might as well post some updates.

First image is a bunch of flowers. Some Barbarea verna, Brassicas and Raphanus sativus are visible in the image. One of the radishes has unhealthy leaves. Bumblebees of different sizes have visited all of these flowers - honeybees and smaller bees came as well.

Next two images are from the smooth - large  leaved radish. Only one flower so far, the first one looks unusual - but the other may look normal.

Last two are from a more "normal type" of radish.

[Garrett Schantz]

First image has the off type radish plants flower's with the regular type on the right.

Second image is the off type plant by itself.

[Garrett Schantz]

Off type plant seems to have slightly smaller flower petals.

It also doesn't have coarse / fuzzy leaves. Leaves are oddly shaped.

Could just be a strange variation.

[Diane Whitehead]

IM Grimmer mentioned he was growing a kale x Brussels sprout hybrid.

Seeds of such a cross are being sold in British Columbia,
           https://www.bcecoseedcoop.com/products/white-winter-kale-sprouts

The cross was made at a nearby organic cooperative farm.

Here is the description:

About 10 years ago we crossed a Brussels sprout with a variety of ornamental hybrid and open pollinated kales. Since then we have been selecting for a very winter hardy white laced kale that produces beautiful white sprouts in the winter and early spring. From a June planting, the large green leaves can be used as you would collards in the late summer and fall. After frost, the small inner white streaked leaves develop a sweet flavour and can be added to salads. From mid winter to early spring white sprouts can be harvested from the stalks to stir fry or use in salads. This is still a diverse landrace with a fair bit of variation in leaf shape and colour as well as distribution of sprouts on stalk. We have had fun trying to tame and refine this breeding project over the years, and wanted to release it so you might try your hand at seed selection too.

Certified Organic

OSSI pledged variety. For more info about our involvement with OSSI see here.

You have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others' use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.

[Garrett Schantz]

I haven't updated this in awhile. I mentioned Brassica crosses and whatnot in another thread.

Guess I'll post about that matter here:


Honestly, I was planning on taking some photos of Brassicas and other neat hybrids. But, I moved a few months earlier than I would have preferred. Property buyers took the initial price listing without negotiating. And they wanted to move in sooner rather than later.

Had some probable Eruca X Brassica?, Raphanus X Brassica, Brassica Hybrids.

I basically moved any sort of obvious hybrids into a secondary self seeding spot.

Probably mentioned this somewhere on here, most extra seeds of anything got tossed into a large area. I usually tossed the same species into the same general spot in an area or let things self seed.

Any of those off types, obvious "hey that's weird" fellows, got sent to the other mentioned spot.


I was somewhat surprised at the fact that I got a Brassica hybrid or hybrids so quickly after a probable Raphanus one. The Raphanus seeds kept self sowing. If I saved seed, they simply got moldy. If I had a few more generations with them, I could've bred for ones that didn't do that.

I saved their seed the same way I do Brassicas and Radishes. Neither of those guys ever molded. Tried different locations, containers.

They just liked to mold. They actually came up in larger amounts than either parent species. This was also after getting past a fertility issue as most of these fellows were having either yellow or purple flowers and now setting more pods.

A lot of them in the main patch didn't flower, so I only saw the odd colored types or purples. They got mowed over. Dirt underneath got cut too, mower blade was pretty low.

Disappointing. Didn't get upset as I had the more promising types moved elsewhere earlier on.

But yeah. We moved. I wasn't sure what to do, sure I could dig some plants up.

But, it's from PA to Mississippi. And I literally couldn't fit a single thing else in any vehicle.

Honestly thought of the plants last minute.


I'd have taken pictures before moving, but I was slightly upset and didn't want to really take a picture of them because none of them had seed ready - still had flowers and whatnot.


Thinking of this reminded me that I need a new trellis since the one I had wrapped up at home, didn't fit in the vehicles either. Found that last minute, somehow ended up in the back of a shed in the woods.

So, that's a plus.


There's a chance that I had a higher amount of crosses than usual, since I was purely using one area for bees to use these plants flowers and letting everything self seed, everything was basically right next to each other in clusters.

So, almost nothing was ever harvested from there for food.

[Garrett Schantz]

I'll post some Brassicaceae species here.

Some I have, some I don't:


Raphanus caudatus
Raphanus raphanistrum
Raphanus sativus
B. carinata
B. juncea
B. oleracea
B. napus
B. nigra
B. rapa
Brassica elongata
Brassica fruticulosa
Brassica hilarionis
Brassica rupestris
Brassica tournefortii
Brassica cretica
Lepidium sativum
Lepidium oleraceum
Lepidium virginicum
Lepidium latifolium
Lepidium howei-insulae
Lepidium coronopus
Lepidium campestre
Lepidium meyenii
Nasturtium microphyllum
Nasturtium officinale
Nasturtium floridanum
Barbarea verna
Barbarea vulgaris
Barbarea stricta
Barbarea orthoceras
Ultracross Collards
Big Stem' Chinese Broccoli
Bunias orientalis
Honesty
Alliaria petiolata
Armoracia rusticana
Mummenhoffia alliacea
Crambe cordifolia
Crambe maritima
Crambe tatarica
Sinapis arvensis
Sinapis alba
Hirschfeldia incana
Cardamine pensylvanica
Diplotaxis tenuifolia
Diplotaxis muralis
Diplotaxis erucoides
Diplotaxis gracilis
Eruca sativa
Pringlea antiscorbutica


Pringlea antiscorbutica isn't one I have. But, I will mention that it's probably the least likely mentioned species to cross with anything else on this list.

It's a monotypic member of the Pringlea genus. Meaning, it's the only member in its genus.

It's native to the Kerguelen Islands. It's roots apparently taste like horseradish, it's leaves are might taste like "cress".

The plant grows in areas with a high soil water content.

This probably means you'll need to grow this in a spot where it'll always have access to water. The leaves have a water content of around 83% apparently.

Could be fun to see if someone living on an island, alongside a beach or something could grow this alongside oysterleaf, seakale.

To my understanding, the species probably mostly self pollinates. There aren't many pollinators on the islands. And there's typically strong winds, so wind pollination may be out.

But, a small fly apparently visits the plants. Small flies are known to pollinate Brassicas to some extent, but they are also pollinated by bees - so they get overlooked.


Species like these are just of interest to me, because they obviously branched off from relatives and somehow or another changed quite a bit after going to an island.

Or, they're from extinct species that died off on mainland.

It reminds me of Dendrosicyos, the only species in the Cucurbitaceae to grow a trunk / act as a tree. These fellows tend to get trunks once they are old enough. Which is odd to see something in this family with edible leaves, roots and potentially having trunks one day.

It also reportedly has 7 - 8 traits that are common in cold tolerant plants.

Google images shows a plant with snow around it, seems to be a few feet from ocean water. Added in with the 80%ish water content in its leaves, and preferring to sit in ocean water - this is probably pretty cold / frost hardy.

But, it also probably needs to be in standing water if it's not on a beach.




As for things like Raphanus, I'd mostly want the purple flowers, disease resistances - and of course, purple, long podded Brassica interspecifics. They're grown for their pods, might look nice with an ornamental kale, or work as a dual purpose crop depending on things.


Barbarea species, I'd mainly want to cross among themselves.

Same with Lepidium species. I'd want to breed a Maca that grows better in different climates. I think there's already work in that direction from China. But, yeah.


All sorts of other crosses would probably be possible here too.



I still very much want nice looking flowers and other interesting traits from other species merged / mixed into groups.

I thought I detailed everything I could potentially want, flavanoids types, flower bunches in bundles, different flower colors, larger flowers - flowers that attract mainly bees or whatever else.

That sorta thing.

[Garrett Schantz]

Did a small bit of research.

Raphanobrassica is the name for any Raphanus X Brassica hybrid.


Seems to be due to the fact that the crosses can be considered a new species, become fertile, unable to cross easily back to the parent species.

Plus, their chromosomes are typically doubled using colchicine.

I'm looking at images and other things of hybrids. Lot of what I found resembled basic F1s of B. oleracea at first. Very few set seed, first cluster of flowers fell off.

Plus larger / smaller flower sizes than what there should've been, colorations - etc.

Since I didn't use colchicine, and started getting more fertile plants, I'm unsure if the new species designation would hold up without the doubling.


Doesn't really matter since I don't have any seedlings or plants anymore.


Maybe one day it'll happen again.

Brassicoraphanus is another name for these crosses / grouping.

But, yeah. Neato.