[Sca-cooks] what is silverbeet?

[Terry Decker]

> >OED lists it as "n. Austral. and N.Z. the seakale beet, Beta
>>vulgaris; = chard"
>
> Let me point out that seakale beet is NOT kale, which is a leafy cabbage.
>
> Ranvaig

There is a visual simularity between the leaves of the sea beet (Beta 
vulgaris var. maritima) and the leaves of sea kale (Crambe maritima).  Sea 
beet believed to be the wild ancestor of the beets including chard, while 
sea kale is believed to be the ancestor of the genus Brassica, the cabbages. 
As Ranvaig points out, the plants are not the same, but the similarity of 
the leaves probably had them all termed generally as cabbage, col or kal in 
Middle English.

Bear