turnip, garden vegetable of the same genus of the family Cruciferae (mustard family) as the cabbage; native to Europe, where it has been long cultivated. The two principal kinds are the white (Brassica rapa) and the yellow (B. napobrassica), which is known as the rutabaga, the Swedish turnip, or the swede. The rutabaga is grown extensively only in Europe, where it is believed to have originated during the Middle Ages as a cross between the white turnip and the cabbage. The turnip is one of the root crops used as a stock feed as well as for human food. The green leaves (greens) are often cooked like spinach. The turnip is a biennial cool-weather crop, grown mostly in cool climates. The worst turnip pests are the root maggot and the flea beetle; it is also attacked by clubroot fungus. Turnips are classified in the division Magnoliophyta, class Magnoliopsida, order Capparales, family Cruciferae.

Indian turnip: see arum.

Hardy biennial plant in the mustard family, cultivated for its fleshy roots and tender leaves. There are two species, the turnip proper (Brassica rapa) and the Swedish turnip, or rutabaga. The true turnip probably originated in middle and eastern Asia and spread by cultivation throughout the temperate zone. Both species are cool-season crops. Turnips develop rapidly enough to have an early-spring or late-summer seeding produce a crop before, respectively, extremes of summer or late-fall weather occur.

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North American plant (Arisaema triphyllum) of the arum family, noted for the unusual shape of its flower. One of the best-known perennial wildflowers of late spring in the eastern U.S. and Canada, it grows in wet woodlands and thickets from Nova Scotia to Minnesota and south to Florida and Texas. Three-part leaves on each of two long stalks overshadow the flower, which consists of a conspicuous green- and purple-striped structure called a spathe (“pulpit”) that rises on a separate stalk. The spathe curves in a hood over a club-shaped spadix (“jack”) that, at its base, bears minute flowers. In late summer the plant produces a cluster of brilliant red berries that are poisonous to humans but are eaten by many wild animals.

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