Perennial, 10-40 cm tall, erect, branched mostly from the base, clothed with stellate, whitish hairs. Leaves narrowly oblong or linear, entire or irregularly sparsely toothed, 4-10 cm long, 1-5 mm broad. Racemes 15-30-flowered, up to 15 cm long in fruit. Flowers 1-1.5 cm across, dingy yellow or violet, subsessile; pedicels c. 1.5 mm long in fruit, slightly thickened. Sepals 6-10 mm long. Petals 15-20 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, subcontorted or crimped. Stamens c. 6:8 mm long; anthers c. 1.5 mm long. Siliquae 8-12 cm long, 1.5 mm broad (excluding the stigmate appendages), obscurely torulose, canescent; stigma bilobed, about as broad as the pod, erect with short, diverging appendages; seeds many, c. 1.5 mm long, oblong, obscurely winged.

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Type: Described from Europe.

Distribution: Native of the Mediterranean region.

Sometimes cultivated as an ornamental in our gardens during winter for its spring flowers.