A medium height, greyish, softly hairy plant with quite broad, lanceolate to oblong, untoothed leaves, the lower short stalked, the upper clasping the stem. Flowers dull purple, 5 to 6 mm, funnel shaped.

Large plant; leaves grey-green, hairy; flowers reddish-purple, nutlets spiny

Photograph of whole plant in habitat (RPR)

Dry grassy habitats, gravelly or disturbed ground, often found near to the coast.

Flowers May to August.

Biennial.

Widespread but infrequent in England and Wales.

Scarce in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the Flora of Leicestershire (Primavesi and Evans 1988) it was found in 3 of the 617 tetrads, and in the Flora of Rutland (Messenger 1971) in 9 tetrads.

In the current checklist (Jeeves 2011) is is listed as Native; scarce.

It is listed on the current VC55 Rare Plant Register (Hall and Woodward 2022) as Locally Scarce (i.e. present in 4-10 sites)