OtterKnow Kids Encyclopedia

Broccoli looks like a bunch of tiny green trees, and the part we eat is actually made up of hundreds of tiny flower buds all bunched together! If you did not pick broccoli and just let it keep growing, those little buds would open up into pretty yellow flowers. Broccoli got its name from an Italian word that means “little arms.”

Broccoli grows best in cool weather and does not like it when it gets too hot outside. A single broccoli plant grows one big head in the center, and after you cut that off, smaller side pieces keep growing so you can harvest even more! Most broccoli in the United States comes from the sunny state of California.