The oil, pressed from the seed, is used in margarine and shortenings and in salad and cooking oil. The quality of rape oil is equal to or better than soybean oil. Rapeseed meal has found wide acceptance as a food for many classes of livestock. Yields reported from Canada range from 1,560 to 2,220 pounds seed per acre. Young rape plants look somewhat like young cabbage plants, with basal leaves 4 to 12 inches or more long and half as broad as long.
Rape is a cool-season crop but is susceptible to frost.
The plant is topped by a mass of golden yellow flowers that in bloom give the field a bright golden appearance. The flowers are in elongated terminal racemes. There are the four characteristic cruciferous petals and, usually, six stamens, four projecting above the stigma and two shorter than the style. The fruit is a slender silique or pod 2 to 4 inches long. Before the corolla has fully expanded, the anthers make a half turn and dehisce so the pollen-covered sides are turned outward.