name: Common Beet

flavor_db_name_variants: common beet

source: foodb

status: draft

food_db_id: Common beet

id: 25

name_scientific: Beta vulgaris

description: The beet (Beta vulgaris) is a plant in the Chenopodiaceae family which is now included in Amaranthaceae family. It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is the root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet. However, other cultivated varieties include the leaf vegetable chard, as well as the root vegetable sugar beet, which is important in the production of table sugar, and mangelwurzel, which is a fodder crop. Three subspecies are typically recognised. All cultivated varieties fall into the subspecies Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris, while Beta vulgaris subsp. maritima, commonly known as the sea beet, is the wild ancestor of these, and is found throughout the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Europe, the Near East, and India. A second wild subspecies, Beta vulgaris subsp. adanensis, occurs from Greece to Syria. The roots are most commonly deep red-purple in color, but come in a wide variety of other shades, including golden yellow and red-and-white striped. Beta vulgaris is a herbaceous biennial or, rarely, perennial plant with leafy stems growing to 1–2 m tall. The leaves are heart-shaped, 5–20 cm long on wild plants (often much larger in cultivated plants). The flowers are produced in dense spikes; each flower is very small, 3–5 mm diameter, green or tinged reddish, with five petals; they are wind pollinated. The fruit is a cluster of hard nutlets.

itis_id: 20681

wikipedia_id: Beet

picture_file_name: 25.jpg

picture_content_type: image/jpeg

picture_file_size: 81715

picture_updated_at: 2012-04-20T09:44:15.000Z

legacy_id: 25

food_group: Vegetables

food_subgroup: Leaf vegetables

food_type: Type 1

created_at: 2011-02-09T00:37:16.000Z

updated_at: 2019-05-14T18:04:14.000Z

creator_id: null

updater_id: null

export_to_afcdb: false

category: specific

ncbi_taxonomy_id: 161934

export_to_foodb: true

public_id: FOOD00025