A Matter of Selection Blog Post #8 Annika Gordon

There are so many different types of leaves within the brassica oleracea species, you wouldn't even guess that they are all the same species.  Whether it's length, color, shape, or texture there are so many variations to look at and discover.
Some of these variations include:
purple veins

green leafs

white veins

wrinkly leaf

The biggest range from one extreme to another would most likely be the dentin of each leaf. While some leafs have little to no dentin, there are some that are up to 3 inches long.
no dentin

3 inch dentin

There are several explanations as to why traits in the brassica oleracea family vary so much. One is artificial selection, also know as selective breeding, is the process which farmers and breeders chose traits they like more than others to be continued in the genes of their plants. Different farmers probably saw different traits as being useful, and after branching off so many times you get decent with modification. It isn't all artificial selection though, natural selection also plays a role, and so do mutations. Natural selection is the random selection of genes in a plant, and mutations within the genes often occur causing the random appearance of different genes.

Though there are many differences between the plants in the brassica oleracea species, there are many similarities as well. The trait that is probably the most alike throughout all the plants is probably their color.

To get the color to change drastically, plant breeders could breed it with the purple leaves of one type of brassica oleracea plant. Though it is purple, unlike all the other plants, it is still in the same species, so breeders should be able to breed it with the green leaf plants.