Broccoli is an edible green plant in the cabbage family, whose large flowering head is used as a vegetable. The word broccoli comes from the Italian plural of broccolo, which means "the flowering crest of a cabbage", and is the diminutive form of brocco, meaning "small nail" or "sprout".^[3] Broccoli is often boiled or steamed but may be eaten raw.^[4]

Broccoli is classified in the Italica cultivar group of the species Brassica oleracea. Broccoli has large flower heads, usually green in color, arranged in a tree-like structure on branches sproutingfrom a thick, edible stalk. The mass of flower heads is surrounded by leaves. Broccoli resembles cauliflower, which is a different cultivar group of the same species.

Broccoli is a result of careful breeding of cultivated leafy cole crops in the Northern Mediterranean in about the 6th century BC.^[5] Since the Roman Empire, broccoli has been considered a uniquely valuable food among Italians.^[6] Broccoli was brought to England from Antwerp in the mid-18th century by Peter Scheemakers.^[7] Broccoli was first introduced to the United States by Italian immigrants but did not become widely known there until the 1920s.