A perennial, usually 30-60cm tall but sometimes less. Most leaves basal, 3-6cm long, oblong to narrowly lanceolate, wavy. Flowers about 1cm long, violet-blue, in dense spike-like racemes or panicles. Balkan peninsula and south-eastern Italy, in rock, calcareous ground.
Surface sow seeds, warm, 3-6 weeks, maybe longer for stragglers. Plants are quite hardy, drought and the cold winter wet of Britain. Best grown in a pot or rockery.