Salsify is an undeservedly forgotten high–value root vegetable

UDC 633.4/635
https://doi.org/10.25630/PAV.2023.66.57.005

Gish R.A.

Despite the steady supply of vegetables to the Russian population, the importance of a number of vegetable crops, rarely grown in our gardens, has not decreased. It must be admitted that some of them, for various reasons, including poor awareness of the population about their dietary and medicinal properties, agricultural cultivation techniques have not reached their zenith. Among the undeservedly forgotten vegetable plants can be seen salsify, which was grown everywhere in Russia before the Great Patriotic War. The salsify (Tragopogon porrifolius) belongs to the Asteraceae family. It has a number of other names: goatbeard plant, white root, vegetable oyster, Jerusalem star, devil's beard, salsify. The palette of names of the salsify, in itself, speaks of a deep cultural history, a long and close acquaintance of the peoples of the world with it. Its leaves outwardly resemble leeks, which determined the species name. The plant is called the salsify for the similarity of the leaves, others for the similarity of the seeds. Being cultivated in the recent past, it, like wild plants, shows natural resistance to growing conditions, pests and diseases, excluding nematodes, to which it is resistant. On the one hand, this plant is remarkable for its unpretentiousness and high ecological plasticity. On the other hand, it is distinguished by the content of the most important nutrients for humans, including vitamins, mineral salts, trace elements, inulin, folic acid, etc., which make it possible to consider the goatgrass as a functional vegetable. There are reports of its cultivation in industrial culture in France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, its production is also emerging in Russia. Morphobiological features, detailed agrotechnics of cultivation, methods of using root crops as a dietary product are given. Reports on its use in herbal medicine and folk medicine are wisely given.

Key words: vegetables, salsify, technology, root crops

Gish R.A., D.Sci. (Agr.), professor, head of the Department of Vegetable Growing of Kuban State Agrarian University. E-mail: gish-19@mail.ru

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For citing: Gish R.A. Salsify is an undeservedly forgotten high–value root vegetable. Potato and vegetables. 2023. No6. Pp. 19-22. https://doi.org/10.25630/PAV.2023.66.57.005 (In Russ.).

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