Scolymus

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Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Scolymus (old Greek name used by Hesiod). Compositae. Three or four herbs, all natives of the Mediterranean region. S. grandiflorus, a perennial species, is rarely cultivated abroad for its flowers and S. maculatus, an annual species, for its variegated foliage. Scolymus hispanicus (Fig. 3580) is the vegetable known as golden thistle or Spanish oyster plant. It makes a root very like salsify, except that it is much lighter colored and considerably longer. Its flavor is less pronounced than that of salsify, but when carefully cooked, it possesses a very agreeable quality which is somewhat intermediate between that of salsify and parsnip. It is adapted to all the methods of cooking employed for those vegetables. The particular value of the Spanish oyster plant, aside from affording a variety in the kitchen-garden, is its large size and productiveness as compared with salsify. The product may be nearly twice as great, for a given area, as for salsify. The seeds are much easier to handle and to sow than those of salsify. They are sown in March or April. The seeds, or rather achenes, are flat and yellowish, surrounded by a white scarious margin. The roots may be dug either in fall or spring. The greatest fault of the Spanish oyster plant lies in the prickly character of the leaves, which makes the plant uncomfortable to handle. The roots are often 10 to 12 inches long and 1 inch thick. It is said that the leaves and stalks are eaten like cardoons by the people of Salamanca; also that the flowers are used to adulterate saffron. The S. hispanicus, Linn., is a biennial plant, native to S. Eu. The radical lvs. are very spiny, oblong, pinnatifid, dark green, marked with pale green spots. The plant grows 2- 2 1/2 ft. high, is much branched and bears bright yellow fl.-heads which are sessile and contain only 2 or 3 fls., all of which are ligulate. The heads are sessile, terminal, and axillary. CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Scolymus. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Scolymus QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)