broccoli

Broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family, whose large flowering head is used as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage", and is the diminutive form of brocco, meaning "small nail" or "sprout".  It is often boiled or steamed but may be eaten raw.
It is a result of careful breeding of cultivated leafy cole crops in the Northern Mediterranean in about the 6th century BC.  Since the Roman Empire, broccoli has been considered a uniquely valuable food among Italians.  Broccoli was brought to England from Antwerp in the mid-18th century by Peter Scheemakers. Broccoli was first introduced to the United States by Italian immigrants but did not become widely known there until the 1920s.

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