Cardoon.....

,,,,,,love the word.  I think if I heard someone exclaim "cardoon!"  I would want to say "and the same to you".
These crazy looking flowers are all over the allotments at the moment.  I believe the smaller ones,  as shown,  are cardoons and the bigger ones are Globe Artichokes.  Both are edible.  I first became aware of cardoons when Clarissa Dickson Wright who was a frequent guest on various Radio 4 programmes managed always to sing the praises of cardoons.  I remember looking them up as I had no idea what they were.