Oilseed rape

Rapeseed oil seed
Rapeseed (Brassica napus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Brassicales
Family:	Brassicaceae
Genus:	Brassica
Species:	B. napus
Binomial name
Brassica napus L.

Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as rape,oilseed rape,rapa, rappi, rapaseed (and, in the case of one particular group of cultivars, canola), is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), consumed in China (油菜籽: Mandarin Pinyin yóucài; Cantonese:yau choy) and Southern Africa as a vegetable. The name derives from the Latin for turnip, rāpa or rāpum, and is first recorded in English at the end of the 14th century. Older writers usually distinguished the turnip and rape by the adjectives 'round' and 'long' (-'rooted'), respectively.Rutabagas, Brassica napobrassica, are sometimes considered a variety of B. napus. Some botanists also include the closely related B. rapa within B. napus.

B. napus is cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed, the third-largest source of vegetable oil in the world.

The term "rape" derives from the Latin word for turnip, rapum.

Rapeseed is known by many common names in the English language. Some names have only been applied to certain subspecies (subsp.), forms (f.), or varieties (var.) of B. napus. B. napus = B. napus subsp. napus = B. napus subsp. napus f. napus.

This list is from the Germplasm Resources Information Network, which attributes the names to other sources:

Brassica napus grows to 100 cm high with lower leaves pinnatifid and glaucous and the upper leaves clasping the stem. The flowers are yellow and about 17 mm across. B. napus differs from B. nigra, but can be distinguished by the upper leaves which do not clasp the stem, from B. rapa by its smaller petals which are less than 13 mm across.

In north-east of Ireland B. napus and B. rapa are recorded as escapes in roadside verges and waste ground.

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Wikipedia