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Thistle in North Vancouver

windberry zone5a BCCanada

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

Could anybody help with identification of this thistle growing in the North Vancouver garden? It is about 2 m tall, and the flowers are the size of a human hand. Plant hardiness zone 8+

Featured Answer

Embothrium

3 years ago

last modified: 3 years ago

A history is of both types being considered examples of Cynara cardunculus. With there in fact having been non-artichoke named forms such as Cristopher Lloyd's Giant and 'Florist Cardy'. Both of which have been offered by Oregon vendors in the past. And the artichoke cultivars having been differentiated by being placed within the aforementioned Scolymus Group. As in C. cardunculus Scolymus Group 'Green Globe'.

The way the kind shown and asked about here has the same leaf size from top to bottom is not like cardoon plants I usually see. So it may in fact be a specific named form - perhaps even a different species in the same genus, if any of those have the same general appearance at all. For instance C. baetica ssp. maroccana - I have no idea what this looks like but it has been offered by an Oregon retailer in the past.

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Comments (10)

macranthos
3 years ago
Is it a cardoon or an artichoke?
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked macranthos
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
3 years ago
Cardoon.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
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windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you both. Is it possible to narrow it down more?
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
3 years ago
You can't nail it down any further :-) A cardoon is a cardoon, Cynara cardunculus.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
3 years ago

Forgive me my ignorance. Not knowing anything about a cardoon I checked the Wikipedia. It tells me: "The cardoon, Cynara cardunculus, also called the artichoke thistle, is a thistle in the sunflower family. It is a naturally occurring species that also has many cultivated forms, including the globe artichoke." So how I reconcile your answer with this information?
Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
3 years ago
There are two cultivar groups...the Cardoon group and the Scolymus group. Yours is in the former while artichokes are in the latter. That's as close as you are likely to get to a specific cultivar identification.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked Smivies (Ontario - 5b)
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
3 years ago
I have never seen any cultivar forms of cardoon, even with seeds. You do see some with artichokes (a different species) but then that is relatively common with most plants grown primarily as an edible crop. Cardoon is almost always grown as an ornamental, although parts of it are edible. If you favor spiny leaves and stalks :-)

And as good as much of the info is on Wikipedia, it is not always 100% accurate.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
windberry zone5a BCCanada
Original Author
3 years ago
Thank you everybody for the very interesting information.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
3 years ago
Cardoons take some preparation but are delicious and are popular in France, Italy and Spain. They went out of fashion in the U.K. but are making a comeback. It’s the stems you eat, not the buds as with artichokes.
windberry zone5a BCCanada thanked floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

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