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In the garden of the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona, the artichoke flower is already beginning to bloom, which is actually an inflorescence, but they are left for the pollinators, as it is a way of collaborating with the environment.
I have portrayed the artichokes with a touch of reflection for La Vanguardia Readers' Photos, thinking about their useful inflorescence, which is still an aid for essential pollination.
There are those who believe that the artichoke is a vegetable. There are also those who directly associate it with a flower, but in reality it is an inflorescence, that is, vegetables whose group of flowers is edible.
The edible part of the plant consists of the flower buds before they bloom. The budding bud of the artichoke is a group of many small tubular flowers in the formation phase (an inflorescence), covered with numerous leathery, imbricated bracts, on an edible base.
The artichoke is derived directly from thistles, being the result of crossing several of these species that the truth is that it would be difficult for us to eat today. The artichoke (Cynara scolymus) is therefore a herbaceous plant, cultivated since ancient times as food in temperate climates.
Originally, the artichoke comes from the western Mediterranean, it was later introduced and cultivated in numerous countries around the world. The Dutch introduced artichokes to England where they began to grow in Boreham, Essex, in the garden of a palace of Henry VIII in 1530. They were introduced to the United States in the 18th century through Louisiana by the French and California by the Spanish.
The scientific name of the artichoke, Cynara, comes from one of the stories that Greek mythology has left us. Zeus, seeing a beautiful maiden named Cynara, fell in love with her and decided to take her with him to Mount Olympus to make her his goddess. But Cynara missed her family and decided to return to her island. Enraged, Zeus turned her into an artichoke. In this way, its sweet and bitter flavor is reminiscent of love, as is its heart, the best of the vegetable.
