Forms: 5 cardoun, 7–8 cardon, 7– cardoon. Also β. 7–9 chardon, 8 chardoon. [a. 16th c. F. cardon cardoon, ad. It. cardone (or Sp. cardon) great thistle, teasel, cardoon, augm. of cardo:—L. cardus, carduus thistle, cardoon or artichoke. In origin, the same word as F. chardon thistle, the northern form of which, cardon, had appeared in ME. as CARDOUN.]
A composite plant (Cynara Cardunculus), closely allied to the Artichoke (see quot. 1845); a native of the south of Europe and north of Africa, and cultivated in kitchen-gardens, esp. on the continent, for the fleshy stalks of the inner leaves, which are made tender by blanching. (By Cotgrave applied also to the similar CARD of the Artichoke.)
The cardoon was prob. first cultivated in Northern France in the 16th (or ? end of 15th) c.; it is mentioned by Parkinson (Paradisus, 1629) under the name of Carduus esculentus (Edible Thistle), and is said in Treas. Bot. to have been first cultivated in England in 1656.
1611. Cotgr., Means … spaces left for Cardoons betweene rowes of Onyons. Ibid., Cardons, Cardoones; the stalkes of Artichokes, or of the white thistle, buried in the ground, or otherwise vsed, to get them a whitenesse (excellent meat).
1640. Parkinson, Theat. Bot., 974. The Cretanes use their wilde Artichoke in the same manner that the Italians, Spaniards and French use their Cardoni or Chardons.
1658. Evelyn, Fr. Gard. (1675), 162. The Spanish chardons.
1796. C. Marshall, Garden., xx. (1813), 420. Blanch … endive, beet, and chardons, by tying.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., vi. (1852), 119, note. Botanists are now generally agreed that the cardoon and the artichoke are varieties of one plant.
1882. Mrs. Reeve, Cookery & Housek., xxv. 325. Cardoons, this excellent vegetable is little known in England.
