A stiffly hairy plant with markedly wavy leaves. The flowers are lilac to reddish purple in colour and 8 to 15 mm across. The calyx teeth are longer than the petals.

Photo of the whole plant in habitat, and close-up of flowers (RPR)

Generally on light, sandy or calcareous soils. Often on arable land or bare and stony places.

Flowering May to August.

Annual.

A rather local and infrequent plant, found in much of England but absent elsewhere in Britain.

Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland, from the limestone area to the east of the Vice-county, in small colonies or single plants.

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  22 tetrads .

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