What is the newest mustard greens? Let us learn about mustard greens

Mustard greens are a famous specialty vegetable of China, also known as gai cai, jie, gua cai, etc. It is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant of the genus Brassica in the crucifer family, a commonly cultivated vegetable throughout the country, mostly distributed in the provinces south of the Yangtze River. Except for high-cold and arid regions, it has no distribution boundary in China, from the coastal provinces in the east, to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the west, to Sanya City in Hainan Province in the south, and to Mohe City in Heilongjiang Province in the north. From the middle and lower Yangtze Plain to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, mustard greens are cultivated.

Mustard greens are 30-150 cm tall, usually hairless, sometimes the young stems and leaves have bristles, with a powdery bloom and a pungent taste. The stem is erect and branched. The basal leaves are broadly ovate to obovate, 15-35 cm long, with a rounded-obtuse tip and a wedge-shaped base, lyrate-pinnatifid, with 2-3 pairs of lobes, or undivided, with notches or teeth along the margins, the petiole 3-9 cm long, with small lobes; the lower stem leaves are smaller, with notches or teeth along the margins, sometimes with rounded-obtuse serrations, not clasping the stem; the upper stem leaves are narrowly lanceolate, 2.5-5 cm long, 4-9 mm wide, with inconspicuous sparse teeth or entire margins.

The raceme of mustard greens is terminal, elongating after flowering; the flowers are yellow, 7-10 mm in diameter, the pedicel 4-9 mm long; the sepals are pale yellow, oblong-elliptic, 4-5 mm long, erect and spreading; the petals are obovate, 8-10 mm long, 4-5 mm wide. The silique is linear, 3-5.5 cm long, 2-3.5 mm wide, the valves with 1 prominent midvein, the beak 6-12 mm long, the fruit stalk 5-15 mm long. The seeds are spherical, about 1 mm in diameter, purple-brown. The flowering period is March-May, and the fruiting period is May-June.

For mustard greens to form buds, bolt, flower and set seed, they need to go through low-temperature vernalization and long-day conditions. In both northern and southern parts of China, autumn sowing is the main method; in the Yangtze River basin and the southwest and south China regions, they are harvested in winter or the following spring, while in the north they are harvested before frost. Leaf mustard, grown for its young plants as food, can be sown in spring or summer in the south. During the growing period, long-day conditions make bolting more likely, affecting the growth of the edible organs.

Mustard greens are rich in vitamin A, B vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin D. They contain a large amount of ascorbic acid, a highly active reducing substance that participates in important oxidation-reduction processes in the body, can increase the oxygen content in the brain, stimulate the brain's use of oxygen, and has the effect of refreshing the mind and relieving fatigue. The seeds ground into powder are called mustard, used as a seasoning. The oil pressed out is called mustard oil.