An oilseed crop, Brassica napus, believed to have arisen from the natural hybridization of a wild cabbage relative and a turnip relative, likely somewhere in Europe, with cultivation for its oil recorded since antiquity. In its traditional form rapeseed oil was high in erucic acid and glucosinolates, compounds that limited its use in food; twentieth century Canadian plant breeding produced low-erucic-acid, low-glucosinolate cultivars marketed as canola, now grown widely for both cooking oil and animal feed meal. Canada, together with the European Union, China and India, is among the leading modern producers of the crop.
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Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's plant breeding research contributed to developing canola, the low erucic acid, low glucosinolate rapeseed type bred in Canada beginning in the 1960s.
Sclerotinia stem rot is described by the Canola Council of Canada as the most destructive disease of rapeseed/canola in North America (confirmed by web search this session).
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Rapeseed
Wikipedialead description or Wikipedia lead (crop-class)Quote, lead description or Wikipedia lead (crop-class)
napus), also known as rape and oilseed rape and canola, is a yellow-flowered member of the Brassicaceae family.
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