Ruud Streefkerk

Broccoli belongs to the Brassica Oleracea family. It is a cabbage of the type Acephela, of which the leaves and the flowering top are eaten. With this latter property it is related to the cauliflower but there are also clear differences. With cauliflower, the head or main umbel is formed by the precursors of the flower buds, the 'roses'. With broccoli, the umbel consists of already formed flower buds, which is why flowers quickly appear in a stump of broccoli and not in cauliflower. The head is very compact, and deep green to blue-green in color. Some varieties of broccoli have multiple main umbels, such as the Calabrese, with its wide branched stem the most sold species. Broccoli, by the way, sprouts again after harvesting. It forms  successively new, smaller umbels, sometimes a number at a time. But in commercial cultivation it doesn’t come so far: after harvesting the umbels,  the plant is grubbed up in the whole.