Unidentified plant with big leaves and maroon veins

joasiroznepwYqIKLT

Hello all, we moved in to a new place with a garden and a large planter in it and in the last few weeks a large plant has started growing there - we just have no idea what it is. Plant identifying app is saying it’s a sunflower but I don’t think those have red veins like ours does. It’s also attracting ants (I have not spotted aphids on it though). Any help identifying it for a newbie with a veg patch hugely appreciated! Maria

joasiroznepwYqIKLT

Attaching a full view photo as well. And a photo of tiny black dots (not ants but could those be black aphids?)

Busy-Lizzie

Sorry I don't know what the plant is, but the black bits could be blackfly or specks of compost, hard to tell from the photo. The other plant looks like a tomato.

Skandi

It could be a jeruselum artichoke, they look very much like sunflowers and even have flowers that are very similar but much smaller.

joasiroznepwYqIKLT

Thank you both for your help! Now it stopped raining (finally!) I had a proper look and the stems are covered in black dots with several ants crawling around them (I thought it’s mainly ants). I looked up aphids enjoy artichokes a fair bit so that could be it. The plant very quickly grew taller than the tomato and pepper plants behind it (which we planted before we saw there were other tenants in the planter ).