Plant · P-367

Globe Artichoke

Cynara cardunculus var scolymus

Globe artichoke is unusually multi-purpose: the immature flower bud is the classic vegetable, but the stems cook like celery, the young leaves and roots are also edible, and the dried flowers work as a rennet substitute in cheesemaking. Its leaves carry cynarin, a compound with a genuinely strong medicinal record for liver and gall bladder function and cholesterol, making this as much a medicinal plant as a food crop. It is cut back to the ground every year rather than replanted, and that yearly cut of a three-to-five-foot thistle also works as cattle feed or silage, or as chop-and-drop mulch if left where it falls.