Chard

Chard (Beta vulgaris, Cicla group) is a cultivated form of beet grown for its celerylike stalk and its spinachlike leaves. There is a red-stalked variety called ruby chard. The name “chard” itself is related to the Latin for thistle, although it is botanically not a thistle. Because of this and other nomenclatural confusions, especially in French where charde is a general term for the leaf rib of chard or the cardoon, chard itself is known variously as bette, blète, or blette (this last term is particularly confusing because it is a homonym in French for the feminine of the adjective blet (blette), which refers to an overripe fruit and is a cognate of the English word bletting, the process by which medlars are gathered and left to overripen to the consistency of applesauce, which improves their taste).