Beetroot
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris · Amaranth family
Plant portrait
A swollen root develops beneath a rosette of leaves often marked with red veins. Garden beetroots may be round or elongated, red, yellow or patterned.
Harvested part
The swollen root and the leaves.
What to watch for
Follow new leaves and the swelling visible at the crown. Leaves do not reveal the whole root; the exposed part of the model helps identify it without measuring what grows underground.
Growth stages of the beetroot
Plotilo illustrates the beetroot in 5 stages in 3D: seed, small sprout, young plant, growing and harvest. The models show typical shapes; they do not predict how long growth takes.
- Seed
Starting from a seed. It is shown on the surface to make it visible in this illustration.
- Small sprout
A short first stem and its first small leaves emerge.
- Young plant
The young plant carries more leaves and starts to take its own shape.
- Growing
Leaves and stems develop. Their shape depends on the species.
- Harvest
An illustration of the harvested part. Roots are made visible for clarity; this image does not confirm actual maturity.
Same botanical family
Same botanical family as the beetroot (the amaranth family): the spinach, the chard and the garden orache. Gardeners usually avoid growing the same family in the same spot several years in a row: that is the idea behind crop rotation.