Sugar beets are biennial, with fatter leaves, fleshy taproots, white root skin, compound spikes, multigrain and artificially selected single-grain types, 2n=18, and also tetraploids (2n=36) mutated by colchicine. Less variation than fodder beet group in morphology and color.

Schematic diagram of different types of sugar beet

Sugar beet is a cultivated sugar beet species group in the genus Sugar Beet that is most closely related to human production and life. It is mainly used for the production of sucrose, which is the raw material for sugar mills. Selection and breeding of new sugar beet varieties is mainly to increase the sucrose content in the root and improve the quality of extractable products. There are many by-products of sugar beet production that have high economic value and a wide range of uses. For example, molasses can produce methanol, ethanol, butanol, glycerol, monosodium glutamate, acetone and other products through fermentation or chemical methods. Sugar filter mud is rich in calcium and other nutrients, can be used as fertilizer, improve acidic soil, through the process can also make cement. Sugar waste silk (pellet meal) is an excellent feed for livestock, at present, China's sugar beet factory after processing the waste silk is also a large number of exports, selling well in Japan and other countries. Sugar beet comes from the evolutionary process of leafy sugar beet and have a larger storage root cross between the forage sugar beet, after a long period of artificial selection and formation.