[2] It is native to south-eastern Europe (Albania, East Aegean Islands, Greece, Crete and the former Yugoslavia) and to Turkey.

[1] It has been introduced elsewhere, in places such as; Algeria, Austria, Cape Provinces, Corsica, Italy, Libya, Mexico, Pakistan, Sicily, Spain, West Himalayas and western North America (Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas),[3] where it is an invasive introduced species.

It easily inhabits moist habitat, especially in saline soils.

The branching twigs are covered in tiny linear leaves no more than 2 or 3 millimetres long.

The inflorescence is a dense spike with flowers 1 to 4 centimeters long.