The globe artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus ), also known by the names French artichoke and green artichoke in the U.S., is a variety of a species of thistle cultivated as food. The edible portion of the plant consists of the flower buds before the flowers come into bloom. The budding artichoke flower-head is a cluster of many budding small flowers (an inflorescence), together with many bracts, on an edible base. Once the buds bloom, the structure changes to a coarse, barely edible form. Another variety of the same species is the cardoon, a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean region. Both wild forms and cultivated varieties (cultivars) exist. Description This vegetable grows to tall, with arching, deeply lobed, silvery, glaucous-green leaves long. The flowers develop in a large head from an edible bud about diameter with numerous triangular scales; the individual florets are purple. The edible portions of the buds consist primarily of the fleshy lower portions of the involucral bracts and the base, known as the heart; the mass of immature florets in the center of the bud is called the choke or beard. These are inedible in older, larger flowers. Chemical constituents Artichoke contains the bioactive agents apigenin and luteolin. The total antioxidant capacity of artichoke flower heads is one of the highest reported for vegetables. Cynarine is a chemical constituent in Cynara. The majority of the cynarine found in artichoke is located in the pulp of the leaves, though dried leaves and stems of artichoke also contain it. Etymology The English word artichoke was borrowed in the sixteenth century from the northern Italian word (the standard modern Italian being ). The Italian term was itself borrowed either from Spanish (today usually ) or directly from the source of the Spanish word—medieval Andalusi Arabic (, including the Arabic definite article ). The Arabic form is still used in Maghrebi Arabic today, while other variants in Arabic include , and Modern Standard Arabic . These Arabic forms themselves derive from classical Arabic () singular word of the plural () meaning "scale". Other languages which derive their word for the artichoke from Arabic include Israeli Hebrew, which has the word (). The original Hebrew name (see ), which predates the Arab conquest, is , which is found in the Mishna. Despite being borrowed from Arabic, European terms for the artichoke have in turn influenced Arabic in their own right.