Episode 91: Artichoke

In ancient Greek botanical literature, there is a reference to a spiny plant called a kaktos. This word would pass into Modern English as ‘cactus,’ though the kaktos itself was certainly not a cactus as we know it. More likely, it was an undomesticated ‘artichoke,’ a plant whose name ultimately comes from Arabic. In this episode, we take a look at the intertwined history of these two words and the plants they designate.