Radish

Radish is an annual or biennial member of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, grown chiefly for its swollen taproot, which may be round, tapering or cylindrical. The skin of the root runs from white through pink, red and purple to yellow, green and black, while the flesh is usually white, and its peppery bite comes from compounds such as glucosinolates and isothiocyanates. The leaves grow in a rosette, and the flowers range from white to pale violet with dark veins. Its wild forms have been found only in Southeast Asia, where its origin is tentatively placed; it was grown widely in the Egypt of the Pharaohs, yet seems not to have reached Britain until the sixteenth century. Eaten raw in salads, cooked, or pickled as young green pods, it has also served as a homely remedy: Grieve describes the juice given against gallstones and gravel, and the root prized against scurvy. In Oaxaca, Mexico, outsized radishes are carved into figures for the Night of the Radishes each 23 December, and in Japan the daikon is one of the seven herbs of a new-year festival. In magical practice Cunningham gives it to Mars and fire, with two powers: carried, it guards against the evil eye, and eaten, it is said to stir lust. He adds that a kind of wild radish was once carried in Germany to find out where sorcerers were.