ABSTRACT
Cauliflower (Brassica oleracea L. var. botrytis L. 2n = 2x = 18) is one of the most popular Brassica vegetable after cabbage. This is cultivated world wide in different climatic conditions, ranging from temperate to tropics during most of cropping seasons and is available round the year in the market. The word cauliflower comes from Latin term caulis and floris, meaning stem or stalk and flower, respectively. Its world wide total area and production is 8085 lakh ha and 157015 lakh tones, respectively (FAO production year book, 2002). It is grown for its white tender head or curd. The curd of cauliflower has been described as a prefloral structure, which has the characteristics of both the vegetative and reproductive apices (Sadik, 1962; Margara and David, 1978). The vegetative shoots follows the 5 to 8 phyllotaxy of leaves, but the leaf development reduced so that only bracts are formed. The lateral buds of the shoot meristem elongate and are much branched whose apices form the surface of the curd. The whole shoot system are much shortened and thicker and can give rise to the future inflorescence. So the present understanding is that, cauliflower curd is a prefloral fleshy apical meristem, which invariably precedes floral initiation compared to the closely related another Brassica vegetable broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. italica Plenck.), whose head arc composed of flower buds. '
