It is an annual and grows primarily in temperate areas and is native to countries around the eastern Mediterranean, down to Iran and east to Xinjiang, China.

[3][4] It is native to the countries of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, North Caucasus (parts of Russia), Syria, Israel, Transcaucasus (or South Caucasus; Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan), Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Xinjiang, China.

[2] It has been introduced into many places, including within Europe (Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, Corsica, Crete, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, East Aegean Islands, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Madeira, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sardinia, Sicily, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and Yugoslavia); Africa (in Algeria, Canary Islands, Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia and Zimbabwe); Central Asia (Afghanistan, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, West Himalaya and Yemen); parts of Russia (Central European Russia, Crimea, East European Russia, North European Russia, Northwest European Russia, South European Russia and West Siberia); Asia (Assam, Bangladesh, China, India, Myanmar, Pakistan and Tibet); and parts of America (within Alberta (Canada), Honduras (South America), Manitoba (Canada), Mexico (northeast and northwestern), New York (US), Ontario and Saskatchewan (Canada)).

It is distributed over large areas of the Middle East which have dry and saline soils (Nevo et al., 1992).

It originated in the Mediterranean region and is used to make pasta and semolina products (Ren et al).