A cardoon, I think. Sue

Or possibly an artichoke, but looks more like cardoon, I agree.

Carla in Sac

Cardoon it is! Thanks, guys!

It seems invasive here in Rancho Bernardo area on the undeveloped hills. One whole hill is almost covered in it and you can see it spreading over on the other side of the road here. I loved the foliage and grew it as an annual in Maryland, now I look at it with fear--

Apparently cardoon has a bad reputation as an invasive non-native plant in this state. After I posted that picture, I remembered three of them growing on a vacant hillside lot near my house. Amazing thing is, by midsummer when every other weed on that hill is dried out and dead or dormant, the cardoons will still be going strong.