Abstract

The Beta vulgaris complex includes sugar beet, mangel wurzel, Swiss chard, fodder beet, and table beet. Mangel wurzel and fodder beet are considered to be the same general crop type, with the former possessing lower dry matter content (<13%) than the latter. Mangel is likely derived from crosses between table beet and chard, while fodder beet may have a more recent origin, arising from crosses between mangel and sugarbeet. The table beet was derived from the wild sea beet, B. vulgaris (L.) subsp. maritima (L.) Arcang, with small non-spherical roots. Table beet is presently a popular vegetable cultivated for its pigmented roots, typically red but also yellow and other colors. Wild forms were consumed in antiquity mainly for their leaves with roots used medicinally. Beet is referred to in the Septuagint, a Greek translation of the first five books of the Hebrew bible, made in Ptolomeic Egypt in the third century BCE. A beet identified as Beta maritima is included in De Material Medicus of Pedanius Dioscorides written in the first century CE, and the first illustrated version of 512, known as the Juliana Anicia Codex, includes an image with non-spherical root. Beet is mentioned in several tractates of the Talmud, a sixth century collection of history and civil law written in Babylonia. Beta maritima possesses supernumerary root cambia, which facilitated selection of swollen rooted forms. The first colored illustration of swollen rooted table beet, B. vulgaris, can be found in the 1515–1517 frescos of Raphael Sanzio and Giovanni Martina da Udine in the Villa Farnesina in Rome. Swollen roots in Roman beet are illustrated and described in the 1587 French herbal Historia Generalis Plantarum of Jacques Dalechamps. Conically shaped beet roots are found in the market painting of Franz Snijders in the 17th century. Various spherical forms of beet root are found in the work of American painter James Peale in 1826. A complete array of beet root types is found in the Benary catalog of 1876. Modern, spherical beet roots were depicted in 1936 by the Russian painter Zinaida Serebriankov, 1936. Artistic and historical representations of table beet suggest that swollen rooted forms have existed during the past five centuries, but conically shaped roots were gradually replaced by spherically shaped roots during this period.

Highlights

  • Beta vulgaris (L.) subsp. maritima (L.) Arcang, known as sea beet, is recognized as the progenitor of the cultivated Beta crops, all of which are designated as B. vulgaris (L.) subsp. vulgaris and include sugar beet, mangel wurzel, Swiss chard, fodder beet, and table or garden beet

  • Table beet is primarily consumed for its succulent root and hypocotyl, while Swiss chard is consumed for its leaves and petioles

  • Whether spherical roots were present in Belgium at this time is unknown, but evidence presented in this paper demonstrates that spherical table beet roots were present on the European continent at this time

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Beta vulgaris (L.) subsp. maritima (L.) Arcang, known as sea beet, is recognized as the progenitor of the cultivated Beta crops, all of which are designated as B. vulgaris (L.) subsp. vulgaris and include sugar beet, mangel wurzel, Swiss chard, fodder beet, and table or garden beet. Vulgaris and include sugar beet, mangel wurzel, Swiss chard, fodder beet, and table or garden beet. They are collectively referred to as the B. vulgaris complex. Current taxonomic treatments recognize four primary groups within the cultivated subspecies: leaf beet, garden or table beet, fodder beet, and sugar beet (Letschert et al, 1994; Ford-Lloyd, 2005; Wiersema and Leon, 2013). These crops are of substantial economic importance worldwide. The objective of this paper is to examine the history and iconography of rooted forms of the B. vulgaris complex under domestication, emphasizing the table beet

Botanical and Horticultural Origins
Culinary Uses of Table Beet
Villa Farnesina Frescos
Jacques Dalechamps
Sixteenth Century Herbals
Seventeenth and Nineteenth Century Paintings
Findings
CONCLUSION
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