Is Broccoli a result of careful breeding or found in nature?

The question is not well defined and is open to interpretation. By this definition no fruits or vegetables we eat today are are naturally grown as all have been subjected to horticultural methods which add to size, yields, disease resistance, etc.

No reference. Smacks of a clone to me.

You’re walking through the forest when you come across some wild broccoli on the forest floor, except wait, wild broccoli doesn’t exist! Broccoli is a human invention. It was bred out of the wild kale plant by carefully selecting for the traits we wanted and discarding those we didn’t. In selecting and reinforcing the traits we like, human beings have taken a wild kale and bred a new kind of plant altogether, a broccoli plant. That’s also true of cauliflower, kohlrabi, brussel sprouts, even the yummy form of cabbage you buy in the store. They are all bred out of wild kale, and didn’t occur in nature before.

I'd venture to say this is true for 95% of what we grow to eat. If not more.

A product of selective breeding, like so many other domestic plants and animals.

Very interesting Thank you 😊

billyboy915, good point. Requires an intensive breeding campaign.

dmarkc, Considering all our cereals like wheat, rice and corn descend from closely related members of the grass family, you'd be pretty close.

It shares a common ancestor ( Brassica oleracea ) with the cabbage, the Brussel sprout, the Kohlrab, Kale and Cauliflower; Each has been selected for a different part of the plant to be exaggerated in size from the "root" stock, namely, terminal buds, lateral buds, stem, leaves, stem and flowers, and just flowers respectively.

Michael Conte, no

Linda Wanta, Cabbage is not the same as Broccoli!

Irene Townsend, no it has never grown naturally!

mntvoglein, it is not natural, so it is man made!

I didn't know that!

Won't even let vote "Dislike"

John McLardie, I have to agree. We have someone who joined 8 years ago and answered only 440 questions, 167 correctly, while submitting 1418 questions. I've been a member for three years now and never noticed questions submitted without a substantiating article until the past couple of months; now I've seen several. I sure would like to see this author's reply.

billyboy915, Difference between a man-made product and modifications. It is grown naturally.

John McLardie, agreed. QC appears to be taking defunct members' accounts and posting questions, although this question is very "old." But look at the statistics for the author. Rather suspcious. If an actual author exits, I would hope they respond to this chain--most of us occasionally revisit our old questions to inspect the comments.