From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
Also silver beet, Swiss chard. An older member of the beet family, it never develops the large, fleshy, red root we associate with beets. Chard is grown for its succulent stems and leaves and is very similar to that grown in prehistoric times in the Near East, Asia Minor and the Mediterranean regions. Aristotle wrote about red chard in the 4th century BC; light and dark green varieties were developed later, and a Swiss botanist described its yellow form in the 16th century.
