Few Lines From Le Robert Crusifere: Botanical, Agronomic And Common Names Relating To Brassica Juncea

Abstract

The species Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. is one of the economically most important mustard species in the world (Rakow 2004). It belongs to the genus Brassica L., the tribe Brassiceae de Candolle and the family Brassicaceae Burnett (syn. Cruciferae Juss.). This species originated in the African centre of diversity, from which it subsequently spread to East and South Asia and East Europe (Zeven & Zhukovsky 1975), having, in the end, become naturalised elsewhere, as far as Oceania (Wilcox 2003). According to the theory known as the U Triangle, B. juncea is, in fact, a result of the amphidiploidisation, with the chromosome number of 2n = 36 and comprising the whole genomes of Brassica napus L., 2n = 20, and Brassica nigra (L.) W. J. D. Koch, 2n = 16 (Koh et al. 2017). Apart from the most widely designation of B. juncea, there is a rather vast number of its synonyms in plant taxonomy. We may mention the following few, which witness how wide is its intraspecific variation, ultimately leading to its positioning in several different genera: Crucifera juncea E. H. L. Krause, Raphanus junceus (L.) Crantz, Rhamphosermum volgense Andrz. ex Rupr., Sinabraca juncea (L.) G. H. Loos and Sinapis juncea L. (The Plant List 2013). The adjective juncea (Linnaeus 1753, Linnaeus 1758) means juncus-like and is based upon the Latin noun iuncus, denoting rushes or reeds, and has an ultimate origin in the Proto-Italic *joinikos and the Proto-Indo-European *yoy-ni-, referring to the same (Nikolayev 2012, Wiktionary 2018). This variability of diverse morphological traits has led to the development of mutually rather contrasting cultivar types, as a consequence of the goals of local breeding programmes adapting to the traditional uses and consumers preferences of a specific region. The goal of this paper is to offer a hopefully comprehensive and useful guide through the treasury of botanical, agronomic and common names relating to B. juncea. In order to carry out this intention, the following paragraphs are designed in a hierarchical fashion, with the widely recognised botanical categories within this species (The Plant List 2013, NPGS 2018) as the primary, the agronomic types as the secondary (Porcher 2008) and the common names in diverse world’s languages as the third level (Kew Science 2017, Logos 2018, Wiersema & León 2016, Wikipedia 2018, Wiktionary 2018).