Stems to 50 cm tall, generally branched. Flowers white to pale blue, pink or purple, often double or semi-double and with a cluster of stiff leaves (the involucre) just below each flower and surrounding it (the 'mist' of Love-in-a-Mist); summer. Carpels fused, balloon-like. Fruit a capsule about 2.5 cm wide with 10 chambers, the innermost 5 containing the seeds.

S Europe

Sometimes sold as named seed mixes. N. sativa L. is sometimes cultivated; it has bluish white flowers without the involucre of finely divided leaves, and a fruit that does not become inflated.

Seed.

Fruit inflated; flower surrounded by fine leaf segments.

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Ranunculaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.