Growing on roadside, on waste ground and in olive groves, Acanthus spinosus is generally considered to be a weed where it occurs in the wild. However, its elegant erect flower spikes makes it a popular plant with landscape gardeners, though the cultivated varieties are probably less prickly.

The white flowers are surrounded by an upper and a lower purple tinged sepal. They are pollenated by large bees. The flower spikes arise from a basal rosette of thistle-like leaves and vicious spiny bracts surrounding the flowers: it is armed and dangerous.