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Artichoke is a PERENNIAL vegetable growing to 1.5m. The plant is quite big and statuesque, with long, arching, deeply lobed, silvery, glaucous-green leaves. When the flower buds (the vegetable) are allowed to open into flowers, they are very attractive to bees and bumblebees. The plant prefers well drained soil in most soils (tolerant of saline soils) in a sunny position. The flower buds are known as a gourmet vegetable and the whole plant has medicinal applications. Leaves yield a dark grey dye.
Immature flower buds are eaten as a vegetable raw or cooked. Stems can also be eaten and leaves used as a celery substitute (although these are very bitter) while dried flowers are a rennet substitute. As a medicine, among other things, it is said to improve liver and gall bladder function and stimulate the secretion of bile.
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| Latin Name | (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus 'Purple de Jesi') |
