Perennial, sometimes forming low clumps, stems to 50 cm tall, sometimes branched, often waxy blue. Leaves ovate to linear. Flowers solitary or in clusters. Sepal tube swollen, persistent, loosely enclosing the fruit.

E Mediterranean, W Asia

subsp. maritima (With.) Á. & D. Löve W Europe. Prostrate, slowly spreading mat. Leaves fleshy. Flowers 1 or a few. Sepal tube 20-veined. Petals white, deeply cleft, scales small. Capsule with a wide neck.Grows naturally on coastal rocks and pebbles and as an environmental weed in open woodlands, cultivated fields and disturbed sites, especially roadsides and waste places. It is a declared noxious weed in South Australia where it is most abundant in the Mt Gambier areea.

subsp. vulgaris (With.) Á. & D. Löve is not generally cultivated but is naturalised in all southern states including Tasmania and New Zealand.

Marsden-Jones & Turrill (1957).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Caryophyllaceae. 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.