Kerguelen Cabbage

Kerguelen cabbage

Kerguelen cabbage, (Pringlea antiscorbutica), plant resembling the common cabbage and belonging to the same family (Brassicaceae), named for the Kerguelen Islands, where it was discovered. The sole member of its genus, Kerguelen cabbage inhabits only a few, remote islands near Antarctica at roughly the 50th parallel south. The leaves of the plant contain a pale-yellow, highly pungent essential oil that is rich in vitamin C, for which reason sailors used it as a dietary supplement against scurvy.

Kerguelen cabbage was discovered by surgeon and naturalist William Anderson, who sailed with British explorer Capt. James Cook on his first voyage in 1776. The first scientific account of the plant was published by the English botanist Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker upon his return from the Antarctic voyage of the Erebus and Terror in 1839–43. During the stay of the latter on the island, daily use was made of this vegetable, either cooked alone or boiled with the ship’s beef, pork, or pea soup. Invasive rabbits, introduced to some of the Kerguelen Islands about 1874, have decimated many populations of Kerguelen cabbage, and some sources consider the plant to be an endangered species.

The Kerguelen cabbage is a hardy perennial and forms leafy rosettes up to 46 cm (18 inches) wide. Inflorescences arise from the base of the rosette and can persist on the plant for several years. Although belonging to a family of insect-pollinated plants, the plant has become modified for wind pollination and self-pollination. The flowers have projecting stamens (male parts) and long threadlike projections on the stigma (female part), a peculiarity that is thought to be a fairly recent adaptation to the absence of winged pollinating insects on the islands.