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Scientific classification Kingdom: Plants Division: Angiosperms Class: Dicotyledons Order: Caryophyllales Family: Polygonaceae Genus: Rheum Latin name Rheum L. Rhubarb is widely distributed in Asia from Siberia to the Himalayas and Palestine, and is also cultivated in Europe. Medicinal rhubarb (Rheum officinale) Baill., a huge herb, grows wild in eastern Tibet and is often cultivated as a medicinal plant. Stems up to 2 meters high, and leaves up to 1.25 meters long; the leaf blade is cordate-ovate, pointed, five- or seven-lobed. Palmated rhubarb (Rheum palmatum) L., a herb with stems up to 1.5 meters high and leaves rounded-ovate, palmately lobed. Grows wild in Central Asia. Often cultivated in gardens in Europe. In gardens, Southern rhubarb (Rheum australe) D.Don and others are also cultivated. Several species are known in horticultural cultivation: Hybrid rhubarb (Rheum × hybridum) Murray, Wavy rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) = Rheum undulatum L. and others. They are used by humans as food as a vegetable (when cultivated, they try to grow the largest leaves possible, as the leaf stalks are eaten instead of spinach, and also in the form of compote, jam, and filling for sweet pies). Vegetable species differ from medicinal species in appearance: the former have entire leaves, while the latter have palmately dissected or lobed leaves. Rheum nobile, found in Tibet, reaches a height of two meters. Black Sea rhubarb (Rheum rhaponticum) L. is used in veterinary medicine. Rheum nobile Tatar rhubarb (Rheum tataricum) Emodi rhubarb (Rheum Emodi) Southern rhubarb (Rheum australe) Compact rhubarb (Rheum compactum) L. Wittrock rhubarb (Rheum wittrockii) Lundstr. Currant rhubarb (Rheum ribes) L. Rock rhubarb (Rheum rupestre) Maximovich rhubarb (Rheum maximowiczii) Losinsk. Rhubarb cultivation is most common in England and the USA. The most popular cultivated varieties include: giant, Victoria, royal, and early red, or Tobolsk; the first two are suitable because they rarely bloom (flowering stops the growth of the leaves). The climate of Russia is quite suitable for rhubarb, and in most cases it survives the winter without cover; only the most tender varieties require protection from frost in the form of an earthen mound and a layer of straw or leaves over the root heads in the more northern part of Russia. Rhubarb loves fresh, deep, rich soil with an impermeable subsoil (deep chernozem loams are most suitable). The cut leaves are used as feed for pigs or in compost, while the stalks, tied in bunches, are sold. IMPERIAL MONOPOLY ON RHUBARB