I’ve planted the kale+ mix from going to seed, as well as some other kales/broccolis of my own. I’d like to sort out the napus kales into a separate population since they won’t cross with the broccoli. But how exactly can I tell them apart? While most napus types I’ve seen are deeply lobed and red-stemed, some oleracea types can look like that too.
Of course, I could just keep them all in together, I guess. But I’d also like to use the napus plants as a flowering buffer between my oleracea kale and my cabbage landrace. And if I ever grew rutabagas, It would be good to know whether they’d cross with my kale lines or not.
As Joseph said, they taste quite different. I find the napus kales have a noticeable ‘mustardy’ taste. They often smell that way to me too. I’m not overly fond of mustard so I steer clear of the napus kales!
I guess I’ve never been attentive enough to the taste differences; I’ll have to pay attention this year. (That being said, I’ve never had them side by side and made a careful comparison; in fact, it was only a few years ago that I realized that kales belonged to two different species.)