The Portuguese tronchuda cabbage and galega kale landraces: A historical review

Portuguese coles, tronchuda cabbage and galega kale landraces, are a unique group of vegetables very important for Portuguese horticulture owing to their excellent adaptation to prevalecent climatic conditions and good integration in the traditional small farming cropping systems. Reports on these coles are scarce and scattered. A bibliography review is presented on some general aspects of Portuguese cole landraces such as botany, folknames, foreign synonymy, origin, history, and worldwide spreading. In addition to such available information, other data has been gathered from growers in door-to-door enquiries during a germplasm collecting of Portuguese coles. Recent research on the taxonomy of Portuguese coles has been summarized.