CYNARA CARDUNCULUS - CARDOON, WILD ARTICHOKE SEEDS - EXOTIC IN SOUTH AFRICA

Cynara is a genus of 10 species of thistle-like perennial herbs, shrubs and trees in the aster family, Asteraceae. They are native to the Mediterranean region, northwestern Africa, and the Canary Islands. The genus name comes from the Greek kynara, which means artichoke. Cynara cardunculus is being developed as a new bioenergy crop in the Mediterranean because of its high biomass and seed oil yields even under harsh conditions.           Cynara cardunculus is the cardoon, artichoke thistle, or wild artichoke. The stems of cultivated varieties are used as food around the Mediterranean. It is a common source of a coagulant used as an alternative to rennet in the manufacture of cheese, with the advantage that the cheese is then fully suitable for vegetarians; many southern European cheeses are traditionally way. The edible globe artichoke is usually considered to be an ancient cultigen of this plant. The wild cardoon is a stout herbaceous perennial plant growing 0.8 to 1.5 m tall, with deeply lobed and heavily spined green to grey-green tomentose leaves up to 50 cm long, with yellow spines up to 3.5 cm long. The flowers are violet-purple, produced in a large, globose, massively spined capitulum up to 6 cm in diameter. It is adapted to dry climates, occurring wild from Morocco and Portugal east to Libya and Greece and north to France and Croatia; it may also be native on Cyprus, the Canary Islands and Madeira. In France, it only occurs wild in the Mediterranean south. The oil, extracted from the seeds of the cardoon, and called artichoke oil, is similar to safflower and sunflower oil in composition and use.