It is native to Russia, Central Asia and China, but the plant is probably better known in the western United States, where it is an introduced species and a notorious noxious weed.

The branches are lined with narrow, fleshy, blue-green leaves each up to about 2 centimeters long tipped with stiff bristles.

Each inflorescence is a small cluster of tiny bisexual and female-only flowers accompanied by waxy bracts.

[1][2] Sheep are also able to adapt to halogeton in their diets over time, becoming sick from it less easily, and since it is hardly palatable they tend to avoid it in the first place when possible.

[1][2] Halogeton is also destructive to the land of the American west because its excretion of mineral salts makes it harder for other plants to grow where it occurs.