When asked to describe cardoons, Elizabeth Faulkner replied, "Celery on steroids."

Nice, and manages to convey the vegetable's slightly menacing air as well -- they're 18 to 22 inch long, pale green to white stalks ribbed like celery, but with sharper edges.

Some are straight but the most sought after are curved, a feature that results in their being nicknamed gobbi, or hunchbacks.

From a botanical standpoint they're close cousins of the artichoke, but do not produce flowers -- what one eats is the stalk, whose preparation requires a certain amount of care.

Cardoons are quite fibrous; the fibers run lengthwise, like those in celery stalks, and must be stripped out. Once they have been cut they darken quickly (like artichokes) unless put in lightly acidulated water.

The cardoons shown here are in an Italian market, awaiting a purchaser who will take them home and prepare them.

A few Italian recipes:
Fried Cardoons
Stewed Cardoons
Cardoon Sformato
More about Cardoons and other Italian recipes

Elsewhere on About:
How to Clean a Cardoon
Moroccan Recipe for Meat and Cardoon (Khorchouf) Tagine