Cabbages And Mustards (Brassicales)

This group gathers Flowering Plants subcategory members belonging to the order Brassicales, centered on the mustard family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae), named for its cross-shaped, four-petaled flower and defined chemically by mustard-oil glucosinolate compounds that give its members their characteristically pungent, peppery taste and smell. It spans the cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and Brussels sprouts, all cultivated forms of a single wild species, alongside mustard, radish and garden cress, and reaches beyond the mustard family proper to the papaya family Caricaceae and the drumstick-tree family Moringaceae, both of which share the order's distinctive glucosinolate chemistry despite a very different, tropical tree habit. The shared chemical defense against herbivores, rather than shared appearance, is what unites this otherwise visually varied order.