The bargeman’s cabbage is known in Maltese as liftija but has other popular names.The bargeman’s cabbage is known in Maltese as liftija but has other popular names.

The bargeman’s cabbage is a common annual plant that flowers from late autumn to late spring. It belongs to the cabbage or mustard family which is known to botanists as Brassicaceae. This family includes many plants of agricultural and horticultural importance including the cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, mustard and the stocks.

Members of this family are also known as the crucifers because the flowers have four petals arranged in the shape of a cross.

The cabbage family consists of about 3,700 species that can be found growing on most continents, especially in northern temperate regions, although their strongholds are the countries of the Mediterranean area.

The bargeman’s cabbage itself exists in several cultivated forms; including the turnip, the mizuna and the napa cabbage.

The plan is known in Maltese as liftija but, as with other common widespread species, it has other popular names, even though some of these, such as the name kawliċelli, are not well known. This is also true in other places including England where this plant is also known as the field mustard.

The bargeman’s cabbage has several cultivated forms including the turnip, the mizuna and the napa cabbage

In the Maltese countryside the bargeman’s cabbage is often found growing in the company of the white mustard which is known in Maltese as ġarġir abjad. This plant is very similar in shape and structure to the bargeman’s cabbage except that the petals are white, not yellow. This could easily lead one to assume that the bargeman’s cabbage is the ġarġir is far which in fact is another species known in English as the perennial wall rocket.

This species of wall rocket is also cultivated. The cultivated form is known as rucola, a plant whose strongly aromatic leaves are nowadays commonly used in salads to give them what has been described as ‘a kick’.

portelli.paul@gmail.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.