The Hidden Story of Celery: From Roots to Leaves

Celery, a key player in the vegetable world, has many forms. There's common celery, known for its solid, crisp stalks, celeriac with its fleshy, underground stems, and leaf celery, which has long, hollow stalks. Here's where things get interesting: scientists recently created a detailed map of the celery genome. This map includes a special type called celeriac. They didn't stop there; they also looked at 177 different types of celery.By tracing these various types back to their origins, they found that leaf celery from the Mediterranean was the first to be grown by humans. After that, farmers focused on making the underground stems bigger, leading to celeriac, and on making the stalks solid, which is how we get common celery. The scientists also discovered some important genes. There's one called NAC that determines if the stalk is hollow or solid. This is just one piece of the puzzle. Their study not only tells the story of how celery evolved but also provides useful information for future improvements and conservation efforts.