Authors: Rafn
in height, sometimes more. Stems erect, usually several, from the base. Basal leaves rosetted, obovate to elliptic, l-5cm long, prominently veined, palish green. Flowers about 1-1.5cm long, pink to pinkish-purple, rarely white, to thirty or more in a corymb-like cyme. C.e. var. capitatum (C. capitatum) is an extremely condensed variant, 2-5cm tall, with flowers in a head-like cluster; (well worth a place on the rock garden.) Europe, from Sweden southwards (inc. British Isles to Scotland), Mediterranean region and the Azores, southwestern Asia to the Pamir-Alai region; naturalised in North America, in dry grassland, dunes, wood margins often near the sea. (C.e. var. capitatum very local in British Isles, France, Denmark, Germany). Several subspecies occur in south-western Europe and the Mediterranean region, notably subsp. grandiflorum with larger flowers, and subsp. majus with even larger blooms of deep pink. Subsp. rumelicum has normal-size flowers but of a deep pinkish-purple.
