Palmerston North gardener grows mystery cabbage-like plant

Palmerston North woman Anna Wallace with her "mystery" cabbage.

If it smells like cabbage, looks like cabbage, and tastes like cabbage – is it still a cabbage?

That’s the question Palmerston North hobby gardener Anna Wallace is asking after trying to identify a huge plant that has shot up in the corner of her garden.

The mystery plant started life the same size as her other cabbage plants, but wouldn’t stop growing and is now almost 3m tall.

“I thought it was a cabbage until it grew higher than the fence. Now I’m not sure what it is,” she said.

Palmerston North woman Anna Wallace with her mystery plant.

“The leaves look just like cabbage leaves. I thought it might be chou moellier – I remember chou moellier from when I was a child – that must have sprouted from a seed, but I’m not really sure.”

“But I thought chou moellier was an old-fashioned crop.”

Her suspicion could be correct. There were varieties of chou moellier, a type of kale, that grew several metres tall on a thick, sturdy stem. It’s leaves were edible.

The rest of the garden looks healthy with produce of normal size.

Whatever its origin, the plant has provided Wallace with a topic of conversation with neighbours and continues to be a source of wonderment.

Wallace was loathe to cut it down.