Plant id, big thistle

rotormotor7, Feb 8, 8:39pm
https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/362691671.jpg

Wife calls it the big thistle, looks very similar maybe same family?
What the chances it rooting in a saucer of water?

TIA

samanya, Feb 8, 9:16pm
It's a Globe Artichoke.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artichoke
I doubt that it would grow from the seed head, but you could try planting the seeds, perhaps?

westigal, Feb 8, 9:16pm
It's an artichoke, aka globe thistle. Delicious to eat before they get to the purple bloom stage. Google is your friend for recipes.

Don't like your chances of getting it to root, if it has been left on the plant it would have gone to seed, which you then plant. Great flowers and easy to grow

lol snap samanya

rotormotor7, Feb 9, 5:38am
I found it loose on a walk in the weekend, parent plant not to be seen.
Looks cool though :)

whitehead., Feb 9, 2:56pm
its very good to eat you need to take it before it flowers and you boil in salted water for 20 minutes then you eat the segments just the bottom by pulling them through your teeth after dipping them in melted butter they is also a base at the buttom under the choke that super yummy

samanya, Feb 9, 3:02pm
I agree . fiddly but delicious.

ro42, Feb 9, 4:07pm
Looks more like a cardoon flower to me - my artichokes open up a bit differently. Cardoon is also edible and delicious!

bluefrog2, Feb 10, 8:27pm
I was going to say globe artichoke too, but the bud points don't look quite right. Too pointy instead of having a cleft. ro42 might be right, it's not a standard dinner-table globe artichoke.
Artichokes are usually propagated from baby plants that sprout off the roots of the adult plant. Not sure you can grow it from a bud.

mndy1, Feb 10, 8:45pm
We used to have a large thistle on the farm and you could peel back the fronds and eat the nut inside.

devine-spark, Feb 11, 3:53am
I was about to biff a 'dead' artichoke that had not survived transplanting, but up popped a baby today. Yay.

schnauzer11, Feb 11, 7:36am
Wish I'd brought some of my artichokes to the new house! This bloom looks more like a Cardoon. With them, you eat the stalks.

thistle4, Feb 11, 1:29pm
For a moment there I thought someone was asking mer a question about plants. lol

thistle4, Feb 11, 1:30pm
I grow Cardoons and that's what it looks like to me.

samanya, Feb 11, 2:44pm
I could easily have got it wrong & It could be a Cardoon. I have never seen a Cardoon growing.

whitehead., Feb 12, 3:50pm
most thistles have that nut they are yummy but hard to get at

firecentaurr, Mar 6, 8:49am
I've got Cardoons too ;-) Looks identical to mine