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Scolymus hispanicus
Also called Common golden thistle, Spanish oyster thistle, Golden Thistle, Spanish Oysterplant, Spanish Salsify, Spanisg Salsify, Spanish Oyster Plant
Common goldenthistle is a spiny biennial or short-lived perennial from the Mediterranean, grown mainly for its edible young leaves and roots. It is most often harvested wild rather than cultivated.
Scolymus hispanicus, the common golden thistle or Spanish oyster thistle, is a flowering plant in the genus Scolymus in the family Asteraceae, native to southern and western Europe, north to northwestern France.
It is a herbaceous biennial or short-lived perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall, with spiny stems and leaves. The flowerheads are bright yellow to orange-yellow, 2–3 cm diameter
Since at least the time of Theophrastus in ancient Greece, this plant has been known for medicinal and culinary uses. Although it has been cultivated at times, currently most of the plant which is consumed comes from harvesting wild plants. In parts of Spain, it is eaten in stews during spring. It is also used in salads and soups, and it is served with scrambled eggs in Extremadura and Andalusia, Spain, where it is called tagarnina. In the sixteenth century in Salamanca, the washed young plants used to be eaten with their root, either raw or in stews with meat.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Scolymus hispanicus 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.
