Cultivated offspring

Abstract

Sea beet was first harvested wild for leaves to be eaten as a vegetable and potherb. Once domestication had begun, root and hypocotyl were slowly enlarged through selection and used after cooking. Fodder and sugar beet appeared, respectively, around 1000 and 200 years ago in Central Europe. Sugar beet had become one of the more important crops and, consequently, was more studied and selected than the rest of the beet types. Some of the progresses obtained in breeding sugar beet (monogermy, male sterility, and some resistances) has been utilized for other types. Whether the interest shown today for the green fuels will develop it into another crop is yet to be determined.