Its native range is southern Europe to southwestern Asia and North Africa,[2] but it is cultivated in many other places and has become naturalized in many countries.

Scapes are round in cross-section, each up to 180 cm (71 in) tall, bearing an umbel of as many as 500 flowers.

[3][4] Allium ampeloprasum is regarded as native to all the countries bordering on the Black, Adriatic, and Mediterranean Seas from Portugal to Egypt to Romania.

[1][3][5][6][7] In tidewater Virginia, where it is commonly known as the "Yorktown onion", it is protected by law in York County.

[8] The species may have been introduced to Britain by prehistoric people, where its habitat consists of rocky places near the coast in south-west England and Wales.