Mustard Collard — Brassica carinata L.1
Mustard collard is a green leafy (somewhat stemmy) vegetable that, as the name implies, is a near relative of collards and mustard. The flavor of the cooked, canned, or frozen greens is somewhat milder than collards and without the pungency of mustard greens.
The plant was imported in 1957 from Ethiopia where it is grown in small fields near villages. In Europe, it is sold under the trade name of Ethiopian rapeseed. When tried in North Florida in the fall, it produced quite well.
The Texas Agricultural Experiment Station released in 1972 a selection of mustard collard named TAMU Tex Sel. In early growth the plant develops a rosette of leaves from a very short stem. As the plant matures, a single seed stem grows up into a flower cluster. Plants may be 3-5 feet tall. In Texas it produced an average of 16 tons of greens per acre in 53 days. A decade or more after its release, Tex Sel has yet to become a popular vegetable even in Texas. For this reason, seeds are scarce.
Footnotes
This document is HS629, one of a series of the Horticultural Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date May 1994. Reviewed March 2009. Visit the EDIS Web Site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.
James M. Stephens, Professor, Horticultural Sciences Department, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville FL 32611.
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