Cabbage family

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Crucifers, also referred to as the cabbage family, are so named because their flowers have four petals in the form of a cross.

Apart from cabbages and their relatives, such as turnip and the ubiquitous oilseed rape, the group includes the rockcresses and bittercresses, whose most attractive example is cuckoo flower, a once-common plant of damp meadows.

It also includes the mustards – including garlic mustard, known as 'jack-by-the-hedge – and coastal plants like sea kale, dittander and sea rocket.