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Cynara cardunculus
Also called Globe Artichoke, Artichoke, Artichoke Thistle, Scotch Thistle, Scottish Thistle, Spanish Artichoke, Wild Cardoon
Cardoon is a stout, spiny perennial thistle from the Mediterranean, closely related to the globe artichoke and grown both as a wild plant and for its edible stems and flower buds. Give it full sun, well-drained soil and room to grow up to 2 m.
The cardoon (Cynara cardunculus ), also called the artichoke thistle, is a thistle in the family Asteraceae. It is a naturally occurring species that also has many cultivated forms, including the globe artichoke. It is native to the Mediterranean region, where it was domesticated in ancient times and still occurs as a wild plant.
There are two main cultivar groups in the Cynara cardunculus complex, both derived from the wild cardoon (C. cardunculus var. sylvestris (Lam.) Fiori): the cultivated cardoon (Cynara cardunculus Cardoon Group, syn. C. cardunculus var. altilis DC), selected for edible leaf stems, and the artichoke (Cynara cardunculus Scolymus Group, sometimes distinguished as Cynara scolymus or C. cardunculus var. scolymus (L.) Fiori), selected for larger edible flower buds. They differ from the wild plant in being larger (up to 2 m tall), much less spiny, and with thicker leaf stems and larger flowers, all characteristics selected by humans for greater crop yield and easier harvest and processing. Wild and cultivated cardoons and artichokes are very similar genetically, and are fully interfertile, but have only very limited ability to form hybrids with other species in the genus Cynara.
The earliest description of the cardoon may come from the fourth-century BC Greek writer Theophrastus, under the name κάκτος (Latin: cactus), although the exact identity of this plant is uncertain.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cardoon by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
