Canola: a Canadian success story - ARCHIVED

With its vibrant yellow flowers, a canola field is a beautiful sight. And its colour is a clue to its family history mustard. Canola refers to a particular group of rapeseed varieties, a species of the much larger mustard family that includes, besides mustard, turnips, cauliflower, cabbage and broccoli. While these plants have been bred for their roots (turnips), leaves (cabbage) or immature flower heads (cauliflower and broccoli), the rapeseed branch of the family was bred to maximize production of the high-oil seeds that are used to produce vegetable oil.