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                                     Brassica oleracea L.

Family	:	Brassicaceae
Local name	:	English- Wild cabbage
Distribution	:	Mediterranean region and southwestern Europe. Cultivated around the globe
Distribution in Kerala	:	Cultivar
Habitat	:	Growing wild on seaside cliffs
Endemic/Exotic	:	Exotic
Uses		Leaves are edible. It is also used as a medicine, it have cleansing qualities, as well as a mild laxative, an anti-inflammatory, and treatment for glaucoma and pneumonia.
Key botanical characters: Biennial or perennial herb, to 250 cm tall when in flower. Stem is smooth, more or less woody. Leaves are few in number in comparison to cultivars, fleshy, hairless, lobed, blue-green leaves. Lower leaves stalked and fairly large (up to 45 cm long), with irregular wavy margins. Flowers are borne on flowering stems of 20-40 individual flowers, with four pale yellow petals and six stamens (two outer ones shorter than four inner ones). Fruits are  short-beaked siliqua (fruit divided into two cells by a thin partition) up to 10 cm long, round in cross-section.