The composition of intact leaf epicuticular wax esters of two individual genotypes each of kale and swede grown indoors (I) and outdoors (O) at SCRI, Scotland, and outdoors at Wädenswil in Switzerland (S), were determined by GC-mass spectrometry. For all genotypes (I, O, S) esters were found to consist of unbranched ( n-) and branched anteiso- ( a-) and iso- ( i-) components in the a: a, a: i, i: a, a: n, n: a, n: n and i/ n: n/ i acid-alcohol combinations. Esterification was non-random, n: n and doubly branched br-/ br- combinations were favoured over mixed n-/ br- combinations. Combinations with extremes of acid and alcohol chain-length were generally uncommon, although longer-chain alcohols were more predominant in some swede esters. There were considerable compositional differences between indoor-grown plants (I) and those grown outdoors (O and S). In general, i: n/ n: i, i: a and a: i esters were relatively more abundant in (O and S) and n: n and n: a esters were more abundant in (I), whereas a: n and a: a esters were of similar abundance in all (I, O and S). Generally, (I)-grown plants were found to have proportionally more esters of longer chain-length and (O, S)-grown plants proportionally more esters of shorter chain-length. For kale a: a, n: n, a: n and n: a esters, this was particularly related to variation in alcohol chain-length. There were also major compositional differences between kale and swede esters, long-acid-short-alcohol combinations were more prominent in the former, while short-acid-long-alcohol combinations dominated in the latter. © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved