Beet

Beet, the name for various forms of the chenopodiaceous genus Beta, coarse, weedy plants, furnishing edible roots and leaves. They have perfect flowers with a persistent five-leaved perianth, five superposed stamens, and a one-seeded, one-chambered ovary. Beta maritima, the sea beet, a British plant, is very variable, and is perhaps the parent of all the cultivated forms. B. rubra, the red beet, cultivated by the Romans, but only introduced into England in 1656, is valued for its sweet, fleshy, red roots, eaten in salad. B. alba, the white or sugar-beet, has been largely grown for sugar on the continent of Europe since the time of Napoleon I. It yields about 7 lbs. of sugar from 100 lbs. of roots, and over 2-1/2 million tons are made annually, especially in France, Silesia, and Russia. B. Ciela, Sicilian beet, is grown for its leaves or their midribs, eaten as spinach or sea-kale. B. Cicla, var. macrorhiza (the large-rooted variety) is the mangold or mangel-wurzel, a most important food for cattle. Other forms are grown for their glossy ornamental foliage.