Cynara cardunculus (Cardoon)

Native to the Mediterranean region, the Canary Islands and Madeira, it is a clump-forming herbaceous perennial with a large, fleshy taproot. It produces deeply divided gray-green leaves whose undersides are covered with woolly hairs. Leaves and stems can have sharp spines, though cultivated forms vary. Tall flowering stems carry rounded heads of blue to purple tubular flowers surrounded by overlapping bracts. Cultivated cardoons are grown for their leaf stalks, which are blanched and cooked as a vegetable. Wild forms have become invasive in California and other Mediterranean-climate regions. Photographed in the department of Cundinamarca, Colombia.