Low to short, hairy, cushion forming plant with a branching stock, leaves dark grey green, linear, usually one veined. Flowers usually pink, sometimes red or white, in dense heads 15 to 25 mm across, borne on long, leafless stalks.

Maritime cliffs and meadows, salt marshes and mountain rocks. Inland it is most likely to be encountered as a garden escape persisting in stony areas.

Flowering April to August.

Perennial.

Widespread, though mainly coastal in Britain.

It was on the 2011 Rare Plant Register  (Jeeves 2011), but is not on the 2022 RPR because the recent records are introduced plants, and it is considered extinct as a native species in Leicestershire and Rutland (VC55 Rare Plant Register - Hall & Woodward 2022)