Its natural range extends through the lands of the central and eastern Mediterranean, from southern Italy,[2] the islands of Sicily,[3] Malta,[4] Crete,[5] Rhodes[6] and Cyprus, and through Thrace[7] to Turkey,[8][9] and as far south as Israel, where it is now considered rare and endangered in the wild.

[10] The tree is typically found amidst the comparatively humid coastal woodlands and scrublands.

[12][13] The tree is comparatively small, < 20 m high; the slender trunk, its bark coarsely fissured, supporting a rounded crown.

The leaves are elliptic to ovate, bluntly toothed, and densely downy on the underside when mature, imbuing them with a distinctive greyish hue.

[4] The tree flowers in February and March, the round samarae, < 15 mm diameter, deeply notched at the outer end, ripen in April.