Cruciferous vegetables are vegetables of the family Brassicaceae (also called Cruciferae) with many genera, species, and cultivars being raised for food production such as cauliflower, cabbage, garden cress, bok choy, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and similar green leaf vegetables. The family takes its alternative name (Cruciferae, New Latin for " cross -bearing") from the shape of their flowers, whose four petals resemble a cross.
Ten of the most common cruciferous vegetables eaten by people, known colloquially in North America as cole crops and in Britain and Ireland as "brassicas", are in a single species ( Brassica oleracea); they are not distinguished from oneanother taxonomically, only by horticultural category of cultivar groups. Numerous other genera and species in the family are also edible. Cruciferous vegetables are one of the dominant food crops worldwide. They are high in vitamin C and soluble fiber and contain multiple nutrients and phytochemicals.
