The plants are starry, with whitish hairs. The leaves are rounded and ash-coloured. The fragrant flowers are white, cream yellow, pink, red, purple or blue. Leaves whole or slightlysinuate, lanceolate, attenuated on a short petiole. Pedicels are 10–12 mm in anthesis, 12–17 mm in fruiting, erect-patents. Sepals are around 11–14 mm, with narrow scarious margin, subtle, green or somewhat purple. Petals are 25–30 mm, with a nail almost as long as the limb. Seeds are 2–3 mm, suborbicular, with a whitish wing. The flower is supported by a 10–20 mm stalk. 

It is native to  southern Europe, from the Balearics to the former Yugoslavia, and is naturalized in the western part of the Mediterranean region