I sometimes get column feedback on Election Day while in full fledge civic duty as a poll worker.

This past Tuesday a couple of folks good-naturedly let me know they really enjoy their eggplant dishes. One does not season his with much “stuff” in reference to my eggplant insult last week.

The other is happy with her delicious Japanese eggplant recipe.  Okay, but neither brought up venison.

For us who only need the basics of plant taxonomy, the Solanaceae vegetables tomato, potato, pepper and eggplant are but a smidgen of the thousands of species within that family.

And most of the other vegetables we grow hereabouts fall into three other families.

Again, there are many species within each family, most of which are not vegetables.

The Cucurbitaceae family is a bit self-explanatory as it certainly includes cucumbers.  Other members are squash and the melons such as watermelon and cantaloupe.

Among the traits of the cucurbits is finicky pollination. There are separate male and female blooms on each plant, pollen that is heavy and sticky, and requirements for repeat pollination of each female bloom on sort of a prescribed schedule.

The plants are very dependent on insects for pollination. Beginner gardeners sometimes spend too much time watching over their squash blooms and lose hope when blooms don’t turn into baby squash.  Eventually they learn the facts of life about the cucurbits. The first blooms of the season are all boys and cannot develop into fruit.

And throughout blooming there will always be significantly more male blooms than female.

It all works out; if every bloom could become a squash or cucumber, there would be far too many and they would all be stunted.

Another group of vegetables belong to the Brassicaseae family and its members include cabbage, broccoli, mustard, turnip, cauliflower and radish.

A common term used for this family in garden publication is Crucifers, which harkens back to its former taxonomic name Cruciferae.

That name came about because mustard blooms have four petals per bloom that are arranged similar to a cross, i.e. crucifix.

The Brassicaceae vegetables in southern gardens are all ones that grow during the cooler parts of our seasons. But there are heat tolerant family members elsewhere.

A fourth plant group as important in gardens as the crucifers, the cukes and the ‘maters/taters is the Leguminaceae family.

Some call it the “bean family” or the “pea family” or the “bean and pea family.”

Just know peanuts are in the family also.

Well, so are mimosa and black locust trees, neither of which we want anywhere near a vegetable garden. This family consists of all the species that convert atmospheric nitrogen to a form available to plants via special structures and bacteria on their roots.

I call lettuce and okra outlying vegetables because neither is in the four families discussed.  Lettuce is only close to cabbage in the produce section. It is an Asteraceae, as are daisies.  And okra, along with its double first cousin cotton, is a Malvaceae.

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Terry Rector is spokesperson for the Vicksburg Soil and Water Conservation District. You may reach him at rectorterry@att.net.