 The range of the species is central and southern Europe, including southern England, the Mediterranean, Russia, Asia Minor, Caucasus, northern Iraq, Iran to Turkmenistan and northern Africa where it occurs in grassland, garrigue, scrub and open woodland, chiefly on limestone soils.It is absent from the Balearic Islands, Corsica and Sardinia.On Cyprus the species can be categorized as threatened, and it became a protected species in the UK in 1975 under the Conservation of Wild Creatures and Wild Plants Act.