Kale and collards are similar in many respects, differing in little more than the forms of their leaves. They are, in effect, primitive cabbages that have been retained through thousands of years.
Although more highly developed forms, such as cauliflower, broccoli, and head cabbage, have been produced in the last two thousand years or so, the kales and collards have persisted, although primitive, because of their merits as garden vegetables.
These leafy nonheading cabbages bear the Latin name Brassica oleracea variety acephala, the last term meaning "without a head." They have many names in many languages, as a result of their great antiquity and widespread use.
Kale is often called "borecole," and in America collards are sometimes called "sprouts." "Kale" is a Scottish word derived from coles or caulis, terms used by the Greeks and Romans in referring to the whole cabbagelike group of plants. The German word Kohl has the same origin.
"Collards" is a corruption of coleworts or colewyrts, Anglo-Saxon terms literally meaning "cabbage plants."
The cabbagelike plants are native to the eastern Mediterranean or to Asia Minor. They have been in cultivation for so long, and have been so shifted about by prehistoric traders and migrating tribes, that it is not certain which of those two regions is the origin of the species.
The original "cabbage" was undoubtedly a nonheading kind with a prominent stalk or stem, and the kales and collards are not far removed from it. Wild forms have become widely distributed from their place of origin and are found on the coasts of northern Europe and Britain.
Quoted from this source:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/plantanswers/publications/vegetabletravelers/kale.html
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