Question

Cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower are obtained from wild cabbage by
A. Evolution
B. Speciation
C. Artificial selection
D. Classification

Answer 1

Hint: The parent vegetable species, including cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussels sprouts, are a wild mustard plant 'Brassica oleracea'.

Complete Answer:
Brassica oleracea was just a wild plant that flourished along the coast of Britain, France, and the Mediterranean countries about 2500 years ago. The wild form that still exists is referred to as wild mustard. People started growing plants in their gardens in ancient Greece and Rome.

To increase the amount of food they got from it, they preferentially planted seeds from plants that grew more leaves, and after several years, this kind of artificial selection a leafy version of wild mustard was created, which looked more like modern-day kale or collard greens. Farmers selected later sometime after the year 1600 for variants of the plant that in particular developed enlarged leaf buds. This led to plants with massive heads of tightly rolled leaves after several generations, plants that are cabbage

Brassica oleracea is known as wild cabbage in its uncultivated form. Cabbage, kale, collards, cauliflower, broccoli, kohlrabi, and brussels sprouts are part of the family; each variety is selected for certain characteristics such as flower buds, large leaves, and edible stems.

Artificial selection is a mechanism in which humans actively choose specific characteristics of species for or against them. Artificial selection has allowed new crops with desirable characteristics to be produced from a single common ancestor.

 In addition, it can be propagated asexually by taking cuttings, grafting and encouraging runners or by layering once a plant is produced with the combination of alleles for a desired phenotype. By artificial selection, through selective breeding and artificial selection, man has manufactured several crop plants such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi etc. from a single wild cabbage species.

The correct answer is option (C) Artificial Selection.

Note: As an essential human food crop plant, Brassica oleracea has become established and is used because of its large food reserves which are stored in its leaves over the winter. It is rich in nutrients, including vitamin C, which are important. A wide variety of cultivars have been bred, including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, collards, and kale, some of which are barely identifiable as members of the same genus.