Cruciferous plants and their features

All angiosperms (flowering) plants are divided into monocots and dicots. The first class includes such families as lily, onion, cereal, orchid, palm, arid, sedge. The second group includes all the others, for example, rosaceous, magnoliaceous, pumpkin, nut, birch and so on. Plants belonging to each of the above classes, have in their structure individual traits.

Place crucifers 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 - dicotyledonous;
• Order - cruciferous;
• Family - cruciferous (cabbage).

Also this family, in turn, is divided into childbirth. The name of the genus to which a species belongs belongs often to the name of the genus. For example, white cabbage refers to the genus of cabbage (rape also belongs to it), field mustard - to the genus Mustard, etc.

The main features of plants of the cruciferous family

These plants are also called cabbage. This family totals about three thousand species. This includes plants such as the core, turnip, mustard, lettuce, horseradish and other vegetables and herbs, as well as many weeds (eg, a shepherd's bag), some of which are very difficult to eradicate. The life form of representatives of this group varies from grasses to shrubs or semishrubs. The main features of cruciferous plants are that they all have a flower, which contains four sepals, four petals, six stamens and one pestle. The fruit of cabbage is represented by a pod (less often - a pod or nut), they can differ in size and shape. Their seeds are rich in oils, spread mainly by wind. To the cruciferous with a fruit in the form of a string belong a shepherd's bag, field yarutka and others, with a nut - a dye waida and an eastern sverbiga. Cruciferous plants, like all other dicotyledons, possess leaves with a mesh type of venation. The root system is pivotal, that is, there is a pronounced main root and sprouting from it. Flowers are usually collected in inflorescence type brush.

Ornamental cruciferous plants

This group can be referred to as levka. This plant has large flowers of various colors, collected in lush inflorescences, about 50 cm high. They are grown both in pots and in open ground. Also here you can include yellowfin, which can often be found in the garden. In addition, there are some types of cabbage with colored leaves, which are sometimes grown for decorative purposes.

Poisonous plants of the cabbage family

Few people know which cruciferous plants are considered poisonous. To the same can be attributed the same yellowfin. This plant has narrow long leaves and large, rich yellow flowers collected in the inflorescence of the brush. In the juice of yellowfiol, there are toxic substances such as glycosides. When ingested, they negatively affect the circulatory system, directly on the musculature of the heart.

Cabbage in industry and agriculture

The most famous, widespread and often used in rural industries are cruciferous plants - white cabbage and cauliflower. They have a number of useful properties, in particular, their composition includes rare vitamins - U and K, also there are a lot of vitamins B and C. 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, including magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, calcium, iron and dre. Cabbage, especially its juice, helps to effectively cleanse the body and improve the functioning of the liver and spleen (thanks to vitamin U, which, incidentally, is also contained in turnips). Also among the cruciferous there are fodder crops, such as turnips, stern cabbage, rapeseed. All of them are saturated with microelements (phosphorus, sodium, calcium), vitamin B2, contain a certain amount of proteins. Another stern cruciferous plant is a rutabaga. In addition to the above substances, it is also rich in vitamin C, but contains less trace elements. Pergu - a hybrid of fodder cabbage and rapeseed is used for the same purposes.

Still plants of the cruciferous family are widely used in agriculture as oil-bearing crops. To this group can be attributed primarily rapeseed, the seeds of which are fifty percent composed of oils, and also mustard. The oil of the first plant is used only for technical purposes, for example, when steel is hardened. The second - in the food industry: in the production of canned food and margarine. As vegetable crops, in addition to cabbage, radish, radish is also often grown, as seasoning uses the same mustard, horseradish. The useful properties of these plants, too, is worth remembering. Radish is rich in vitamins of group B, PP, C, calcium, iron, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus. In addition, it contains phytoncides. Horseradish contains such useful substances as vitamin C (there is even more in it than in lemon), PP, B, sodium, sulfur, potassium, phosphorus, iron; In its leaves there is carotene. Radish is one of the most useful vegetables, it is rich in vitamins PP, B, C, carotene, lysozin, pantothenic acid.