radish Raphanus sativus, a cruciferous plant related to, for example, turnip and horseradish. The swollen upper part of its root has been used for food since prehistoric times over such a vast area of the Old World, from W. Europe to China and Japan, that the place and manner of its origin are obscure. Most botanists believe the place to be W. Asia and the main ancestral wild plant to be Raphanus raphanistrum, a type of charlock (see mustard greens), but it is likely that other wild ancestors would have crossed with this.
