Phak Kat Hang Hong

[Kanga Japan]

Can someone tell me if these two vegetables are the same:

ผักกาดหางหงส

ผักกาดหางหงษ์

I have them listed as follows:

1. ผักกาดหางหงส

Brassica campestris var. cylindrica - Chinese cabbage (michilli)

2. ผักกาดหางหงษ์

Brassica pekinensis (Lour.) Rupr. var. cylindrica Tsen & Lee - sher li hon (serifon), Chinese mustard green, celery cabbage

Thanks for your help.

[Pla shado]

หงษ์ may be an alternate spelling of หงษ์, both meaning the same thing (goose/swan). It could be a spelling difference for the same vegetable. Chinese cabbage (michilli), resembling the tail of a swan.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear Pla shado,

Thanks for your information.

I might just wait a little to see if anyone else can also confirm this, just to be sure.

[AyG]

(1) I think you may have an old name for #2. According to a number of sources it's Brassica campestris var. pekinensis, e.g. http://www.vegetweb.com/%E0%B8%9C%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%A9%E0%B9%8C/

(2) Swan is haṃsa in both Pali and Sanskrit, suggesting that the final consonant should be written as ส. (I'd rather hoped they'd be different, accounting for the different letters for "s".) However, it's silent, so the spelling should be ผักกาดหางหงส์. (You were missing the karan.) It's also the more common of the two spellings.

(3) Doing a Google search for ผักกาดหางหงส์ and ผักกาดหางหงษ์ appearing on the same page only brings back 17 results. One of those gives ผักกาดหางหงษ์ Cabbage Chinese / Hakusai and ผักกาดหางหงส์ as Cabbage Spec : Pak Hanghong. However, that's on a Singaporean website, so may not be reliable. Source: http://www.marketboomer.sg/starwood/thailand/supplier/LinkedDocuments/Fruit%20and%20Vegetables%20Quote%20Sheet.xls

I find this curious. The low number of results would suggest that the two words are alternate spellings for the same vegetable. However, if that were the case I'd expect to see sites that state this. I could only find one site http://www.vegetweb.com/%E0%B8%9C%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%87%E0%B8%A9%E0%B9%8C/ which suggests this, where I read ผักกาดหางหงส์ ผักกาดหางหงษ์ มีชื่อวิทยาศาสตร์ว่า Brassica campestris - [both] have the scientific name Brassica campestris. The site isn't explicitly saying they're just exactly the same - just that they're the same species.

In short, I can't draw any conclusion.

[Kanga Japan]

Dear AyG,

Thank you for all that information and for taking the trouble to research this in detail.

Regarding the missing karan, it was on my original, but somehow was not copied correctly when I pasted it into my post. I appreciate you pointing that out, however.

Your research may not have been conclusive, but it was not fruitless. At least we now know which is the more common spelling and I assume that the scientific name is Brassica campestris (possibly var. cylindrica), rather than Brassica pekinensis (Lour.) Rupr. var. cylindrica Tsen & Lee.

Much appreciated.