Water-covered foliage of Brassica oleracea ‘Winterbor’
Ruffled. Crinkly. Curled. All are adjectives used to describe the leaves of ‘Winterbor’ kale.
An Award of Garden Merit-winning cultivar, ‘Winterbor’ is among the hardiest of kales cultivated in temperate gardens. As a group, kales have been cultivated for at least four millenia, originating somewhere in the area of the eastern Mediterranean. Kale is now present in the cuisines of many temperate- and subtropical-region cultures (see regional uses via Wikipedia). David Fairchild is credited with introducing kale as a vegetable to the USA in the late-19th or early 20th century, although it is only in the past few decades that kale (and derived products) could be found on grocery shelves across the entire USA and Canada. The recognition of kale’s nutritional value has played a critical role in its widespread adoption.
For those interested, we have launched our Garden Explorer site. You can now browse or search the UBC Botanical Garden Collections. It is a particularly handy tool to accompany a visit to the Garden!
What a great shot of Curly Kale
And so good to see a vegetable featured on Botany Photo of the Day.
As always Daniel due to you and your team, this site is a consistent advocate for the
wonderful world of plants.
Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the kind words, David.
OK, cool photo. I looked at green for a while, then started noticing all the different sized water drops.
But the by-the-way mention that “we have launched our Garden Explorer site” – that is a BIG DEAL. That is amazing! Not just a search with lots of photos. But all those plants are mapped! You can click on on a map location, see the name of the area, and then click an expand button to see a list of what all is there. And then you can click items that are there to see photos. Or you can select tours, including the current (always?) month in the garden blog, with lots of photos. I am so impressed. And excited to use this. Can I expect WIFI to bring this to me on my visit to the garden?
I don’t think you can expect wifi beyond what already exists–you’ll have to rely on cellular data. The cost of blanketing the Asian Garden and BC Rainforest Gardens in wifi is prohibitive, since they are essentially forests. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told.
Too bad fiber optic wires weren’t piped in next to the sprinklers.
There is conduit–but you still have the issue of needing dozens of nodes (if not more) to broadcast a wifi blanket. Anywhere near ground level is inadequate because of the dense shrub layer.
That’s me great grand-pa:) Nice to see you credit his work. <3
Very cool!
The “bor” in Winterbor presumably referring to borecole, an alternative name of kale from the Dutch for “peasant’s cabbage”.