It is native to Europe and western Asia, where it grows on disturbed ground and roadsides, and it can now be found throughout much of the temperate world where it has naturalized.

Perennial wall-rocket is a glabrous herb with an erect or sprawling habit, that grows up to 1.3 m tall, with a solid, almost woody terete stem and spreading branches.

[1] The original name (basionym) of perennial wall-rocket is Sisymbrium tenuifolium, published by Linnaeus in 1755,[6] but it was transferred to the new genus Diplotaxis by de Candolle in 1821.

It has been given many other names (synonyms) over the years, within the diverse genera Arabis (rockcresses), Brassica (mustards), Crucifera, Eruca (rockets), Erysimum (wallflowers) and Sinapis (charlock), which reflects the complex history of crucifer taxonomy.

[1] The generic name Diplotaxis comes from the Ancient Greek, διπλός (diplos) = twofold, or double; and τάσσω, τάσσειν (tasso, tassein), which means to put into order, or to draw up in a line (as with troops before a battle).

In Britain it is most likely to be confused with annual wall-rocket, but it does not have a basal rosette, the leaves are divided more than halfway to the midrib, and the fruit has a short stalk (stipe) above the sepal scars.

[4][1] The Diplotaxis species can be separated from most other crucifers by the double row of seeds in each valve of the fruit (although this is a difficult feature to see in unfertilised plants)[1] and a seedless beak to the silique.

It is extinct from Morocco and Algeria, but has been introduced in a number of regions: Cyprus, the Caucasus, Palestine, Yemen, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Canada (Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia), the United States, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay.

[12] Within Europe, its native range covers much of France, the Low Countries, Italy, the Pannonian Basin and the western Balkans up to Macedonia, with generally more thinly scattered populations in northern Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Crimea, Sicilly, Malta, Sardinia, Corsica and parts of Spain.

[14] It has also been introduced into much of Central Europe: throughout Switzerland, Austria, Germany and Poland, with more scattered instances on the southern shores of Norway and Sweden (where it is found in fewer areas that in the recent past), the Baltic States, Belarus and a few locations further east in Ukraine and European Russia.

Ceutorhynchus contractus and C. picitarsis adults consume the leaves and stems of this plant, whereas the larvae of C. chalibaeus make galls 1-2 cm long in the petioles.

[20] None of these species is restricted to wall-rocket and most are quite common, although the NBN Atlas has no records of brassica pod midge on wild plants in Britain as of 2022.

[21] Wild rocket is high in ascorbic acid, carotenoids, polyphenols and glucosinolates (above all glucosativin and glucoerucin, which are the cause of the pungent flavour).