Cardoon

Inflorescence with blue tubular flowers

Cynara cardunculus is a plant from the sunflower family ( Asteraceae). She is known by two cultivars, the artichoke and Cardy.

Description

The annuals germinate in late summer and winter form on a vigorous rosette of leaves and a fleshy taproot. In the spring and summer of the following year stretches the shoot axis and carries the inflorescences.

The sheets reach a length of 30 to 200 centimeters. You are deep single or double pinnatisect, the leaf margin may be smooth or serrated. The leaves are covered with a 30 mm long spines, especially along the midrib. In hand, the leaves are densely hairy gray or white, hairy on the upper side only slightly.

The bloom conditions appear on a 50 to 200 centimeters tall stalks. They measure three to 15 centimeters in length and four to 15 inches in width. The fleshy bracts are below its lower part fixed one above the other, the upper part is upstanding and ends in a sharp point. The purple tubular flowers are three to five inches long. There are two to eight millimeters long achenes formed with a pappus of two to four inches long, feathery bristles.

Occurrence

The frost-sensitive artichoke is native to the Mediterranean region; from the eastern Mediterranean (Turkey and Persia ) to North Africa, west to Spain and also in the Canary Islands. It is naturalized in other areas with a Mediterranean climate, so in California, South America, South Africa and Australia.

Use

Cynara cardunculus is used in two different forms as a vegetable. In the group of varieties of artichokes still unopened inflorescences in the Cardy the bleached leaf stalks are harvested. In addition, the leaves are used because of their content of phenolic compounds such as caffeoylquinic acids and flavonoids and terpenoid components such as sesquiterpene lactones as medicine.

In a study of Mediterranean diets was determined that Cynara cardunculus has antidepressant effects (serotonin reuptake inhibitor).

Subspecies

Wiklund 1992 different two subspecies of Cynara cardunculus:

  • Cynara cardunculus L. subsp. cardunculus - bracts obtuse to acuminate, rarely occupied with yellow edge, with or without the thin spines. Widespread in the eastern Mediterranean.
  • Cynara cardunculus subsp. flavescens Wiklund - bracts pointed, with a yellow margin and strong spines. Widespread in the western Mediterranean.

The range of the two subspecies overlap in Sicily.

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