[10] In France, the frost-tender cardoon only occurs wild in the Mediterranean south (Gard, Hérault, Aude, Pyrénées-Orientales, Corsica).

[5][16] Wild and cultivated cardoons and artichokes are very similar genetically, and are fully interfertile, but have only very limited ability to form hybrids with other species in the genus Cynara.

[5] The earliest description of the cardoon may come from the fourth-century BC Greek writer Theophrastus, under the name κάκτος (Latin: cactus), although the exact identity of this plant is uncertain.

[citation needed] In Europe, cardoon is still cultivated in France (Provence, Savoie, Lyonnais), Spain, and Italy.

In the Geneva region, where Huguenot refugees introduced it about 1685, the local cultivar Argenté de Genève ("Cardy")[17] is considered a culinary specialty.

In cultivation in the United Kingdom, this plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

[16] In the Abruzzo region of Italy, Christmas lunch is traditionally started with a soup of cardoon cooked in chicken broth with little meatballs (lamb or, more rarely, beef), sometimes with the further addition of egg (which scrambles in the hot soup – called stracciatella) or fried chopped liver and heart.

[24] The cardoon stalks are considered a delicacy in Spain, particularly in the northerns regions of Navarre and Aragon, where they are grown in large quantities.

In Crete, cardoons are eaten raw, with a drizzle of lemon juice, as a meze, and are considered an excellent accompaniment for raki.

[26] In the US, it is rarely found in conventional grocery stores but is available in supermarkets that cater to largely Italian and European neighborhoods in the mid Atlantic states, as well as some farmers' markets in the months of May, June, and July.

Cardoons can also be found in their "wild" state, on the banks of streams and rivers, and even drainage ditches on the sides of roads in rural areas.

The cardoon is also grown as an ornamental plant for its imposing architectural appearance, with very bright silvery-grey foliage and large flowers in selected cultivars.

[28] Cardoon is the feedstock for the first biorefinery in the world converting the installations of a petrochemical plant in Porto Torres, Sardinia, providing biomass and oils for the building blocks of bioplastics.