As artichokes age on the plant, they open more and more until the purple thistle flowers open. Eventually the flower goes to seed, and it disperses or is collected and used to grow more artichokes. However, part of the thistle seed dispersion is a brief "explosion" of the seeds from the plant to help the seeds disperse more effectively. read more
As shocking as an exploding artichoke is, this is actually not the first instance to strike Italy. Exploding artichokes were reported in 2003 and 2008. read more