Turnip
Brassica rapa
A biennial brassica grown for its swollen, white-fleshed root, usually a flattened globe with a purple, green or bronze shoulder where it has sat above the soil. The leaves are bright green, thin and bristly to the touch, smelling of cabbage when crushed. Roots are sweetest and least woody when pulled small; the leafy tops are cooked as greens.
A garden, allotment and field crop of fertile, free-draining soil, sown in the cooler parts of the season throughout Britain and Ireland. Escapes and fodder-crop relics turn up on arable margins, tracksides and disturbed waste ground, seldom persisting long.
Root and leaves are ordinary food, but raw brassica glucosinolates can upset digestion in quantity and anyone managing a thyroid condition may want to check further. Field and fodder crops are routinely sprayed, and a crop standing in a field belongs to someone.
Always use more than one reference to confirm a plant. You are responsible for what you choose to forage.
Root
A flattened globe to top-shaped root with white flesh throughout and a purple, green or bronze crown. Swede, the plant it is most often mistaken for, has yellow-orange flesh and a rougher, ridged neck.
Leaves
Thin, bright green and rough with short stiff bristles, held in a loose rosette. Swede leaves are smooth, waxy and blue-grey, so a hand run over the foliage separates the two before anything is lifted.
Stem leaves in flower
If a plant runs to flower, the upper leaves are stalkless and clasp the stem with rounded lobes. Oilseed rape and swede carry upper leaves that are more slender and less strongly clasping.
Flowers
Bright yellow, four-petalled crosses in a loose head, the open flowers sitting level with or above the unopened buds at the tip.
Updated 2026-08-08T07:14:21.954Z · Part of the shared Foragers Log catalogue · Vegetable