Brassica carinata (Abyssinian cabbage) is thought to have originated in the highland plateaus of Ethiopia
and adjoining parts of East Africa and the Mediterranean coast. Evidence supporting this hypothesis
involves the parental species, B. nigra and B. oleracea, being sympatric in these regions during the
period that B. carinata was thought to have emerged (Alemayehu and Becker 2002). Cultivation of B.
carinata is hypothesized to have started in Ethiopia near 4000 BC (Alemayehu and Becker 2002),
although precise information about its domestication is lacking, and cultivation may be more recent
(Prakash et al. 2012).