Bushy perennial to about 1m tall. Leaves more or less lanceolate, to about 7 cm long, 2.5 cm wide. Flower clusters terminal, purplish red to white in nature but cultivars are in many colour combinations. Flower tube mostly to about 5 cm long.
SW Europe
Cultivated for hundreds of years. Now available as a wide range of habit and flower colour forms, some tetraploids, generally used for bedding and often with exceptionally long flower clusters.They are also useful as cut flowers.
This species has become weedy in many temperate areas of the globe.
Two other European species from SW Europe are occasionally offered, A. braun-blanquetii and A. hispanicum (see key), the latter mostly as A. 'Album', with white flowers, and A.'Roseum', with pink flowers.
Source: (2002). Scrophulariaceae. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.