Enrico Rao

A wonderful peppery, succulent, slightly sweet, sharp tasting arugula. Dark green, elliptic to spatulate leaves are semi-erect growing. Leaves have a wavy-toothed margin and sparse hairs. Leaves measure 7-10" long and 2-3" at the widest point. Compact plants measure 6.7-9.5" tall and 8.3-11.5" wide. Quick to bolt in summer heat and would be best grown in fall. This variety is from the family of Ric Rao, who received the seeds in 1983 from his grandmother after Ric's grandfather, Enrico Rao, passed away. Enrico immigrated to the U.S. from Ali Superiore, Sicily as a boy and was drafted into the U.S. Army when WWI began. He was wounded in Alsace-Lorraine and sent to a hospital in Paris. During that time he was granted leave and visited family still in Sicily, where he acquired this variety to bring home to his father. After Enrico married, he grew the arugula in Brooklyn, New York and later in Valley Stream on Long Island. Seeds were donated to SSE in the mid 1990s by the former Peaceable Kingdom school (TX PE K) of Washington, Texas. SSE Accession # 113595