![]() ![]() If you don’t have a head of Romanesco to test out this mathematical wonder, try it with other self-similar forms from your garden. I’ll let this math geek explain it better with a visual. If you count the number of spirals in one direction, and then count the number of spirals in the other direction, they will be-without fail-consecutive Fibonacci numbers. You remember the Fibonacci sequence from school? Where each number equals the sum of the previous two numbers: 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, and so on. This is the Fibonacci spiral, a series of arcs whose radii follow the Fibonacci sequence. ![]() If you ever have the chance to study a tight head of Romanesco up close, you’ll see a spiral emanating from the center point, along which all the smaller florets are arranged. The tight clusters that form the head are called florets (or small flowers). Worth a read: 11 Vegetables You Grow That You Didn’t Know You Could Eat One year I picked my Romanesco a few days too late, and its famous spiral had already started to unravel, resembling an average cauliflower.īut the following year, I remembered to harvest it earlier (and thankfully, it weighed much less than the 25-pound Broczilla that I grew many years back).ĭid you know: The part of the broccoli that we typically eat-what we call the “head”-is actually the flower bud of the plant (although broccoli leaves are just as edible and delicious, and can be cooked like any other green). Did you know it’s a beautiful example of a Fibonacci fractal in the natural world? Romanesco broccoli is an intricate work of art and a mathematical marvel. Recommended reading: Decoding Your Seed Catalogs: What All Those Weird Terms and Abbreviations Mean How to find the Fibonacci fractal in Romanesco broccoli Several varieties of Romanesco broccoli exist, and some farmers have crossed open-seeded varieties with each other to produce hybrids that are faster growing.īaker Creek Heirloom Seeds and Botanical Interests both carry an open-pollinated heirloom variety, and a few seed catalogs carry F-1 hybrids like “Veronica” Romanesco brooccoli. Read more: The Stories Behind Heirloom Seeds The cultivar is both an heirloom and a hybrid, depending on the specific seed you have. (Rome, from which the plant gets its name, is the capital of Lazio.)Ĭalled broccolo romanesco or cavolo romanesco by the Italians, it was grown in the countryside and didn’t make its way to the United States until the 20th century.īotanists believe that Romanesco broccoli was developed through cross-breeding, and its naturally occurring pattern was reinforced by human selection over centuries. It dates back to the 15th or 16th century, where it was thought to originate in the Lazio region of Italy. Romanesco tastes like a nuttier and crunchier version of cauliflower, and in my opinion, is more flavorful than either broccoli or cauliflower. How to find the Fibonacci fractal in Romanesco broccoli.If you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission. Disclosure: All products on this page are independently selected. It is its own cultivar and by the looks of it, this head-turning vegetable is truly in a class of its own (in more ways than one!). That means Romanesco broccoli (which is sometimes called Romanesco cauliflower) is neither a broccoli nor a cauliflower, though it’s often grouped botanically with cauliflower (Brassica oleracea var. (If you remember high school science, plant taxonomy goes like this: kingdom, order, family, genus, species, and sometimes, subspecies.) Romanesco belongs to the genus Brassica, which is unusual in that instead of individual species, it bundles all of its members (such as broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, mustard greens, kohlrabi, and turnips) into one species, making them all Brassica oleracea. It’s an edible flower (just like heads of broccoli or heads of artichoke) that we eat as a vegetable. The chartreuse bud looks like it was sculpted by a fine artist with its distinctive spiraled pinnacles. Few things in the garden are more mesmerizing than the Italian heirloom plant known as Romanesco broccoli. ![]()
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