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Alexandria is the main town of the Vale of Leven in the north of West Dunbartonshire, a former printworks and dyeing settlement on the River Leven between Loch Lomond and the Clyde. The Vale of Leven is a flat, sheltered glacial valley running south from the loch, and Alexandria sits at its heart surrounded by the wooded policies of former estate grounds. The Leven riverbanks carry productive willow, alder, elder and himalayan balsam through summer; the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park boundary is close to the north, and the Balloch Country Park is immediately accessible. The mixed deciduous woodland of the Leven valley sides provides sycamore and beech; the improving land above the valley adds hawthorn hedgerows and white clover.

Willow and alder open the season in March and April along the Clyde, the Leven and the canal margins. Hawthorn follows in May on the valley field boundaries and the hillside above the Vale of Leven. Sycamore and lime are productive in the Levengrove Park and Balloch Country Park woodlands through June and July. Himalayan balsam is the defining late-summer crop: dense stands line the full length of the Leven from Balloch to the Clyde, the Forth and Clyde Canal towpath, and the Duntocher Burn and its tributaries through the eastern suburbs. Heather begins on the Kilpatrick Hills above Clydebank, Hardgate and Bowling from mid-July — accessible from town-edge apiaries with a short uphill walk. Bramble is widespread on the rough ground of former industrial sites across the southern towns.