Brassica L., Sp. Pl.: 666. 1753.

Tribe: Brassiceae DC.

Notes. – The tribe Brassiceae is notoriously complex, and none of the current molecular phylogenetic studies provided satisfactory data that agree with the current generic delimitation based solely on morphology (see WARWICK & SAUDER, 2005; WARWICK & HALL, 2009; ARIAS & PIRES, 2012; ARIAS et al., 2014).

Indeed, Brassica, which currently includes 44 species centered in the Mediterranean region and SW Asia, is polyphyletic and needs substantial nomenclatural adjustments to make it monophyletic. When that is done, the genus would be substantially smaller and may well end up including B. oleracea (n =9), B. rapa (n =10), and some of their wild relatives with such chromosome numbers (see SNOGERUP et al., 1990).

Therefore, with the exclusion of B. cretica, the other species retained here in Brassica are only tentatively assigned to the genus, and detailed molecular, morphological, cytogenetic, and genomic studies would most likely assign them to other genera.