Perennial, glabrous or sometimes pubescent, glaucescent, 25-70 cm. Stems simple or branching from base, not viscid. Leaves obovate or elliptical-oblong to narrowly linear-lanceolate, acuminate. Inflorescences cymose, dichasial. Bracts and bracteoles frequently scarious, lanceolate-triangular. Pedicels half to 4 times as long as calyx. Flowers hermaphrodite and unisexual, about 2 cm. Calyx 1 cm. broad or more (in fruit), bladdery, ovoid, umbilicate, glabrous, green to somewhat violet, about 20-nerved, with broadly triangular, acute teeth. Petals usually much longer than calyx, white to pink, sometimes red (var. ruriflora Boiss., 1.c. 629); limb 2-partite; coronal scales mostly gibbous, sometimes absent. Fruiting calyx about 1 cm. Capsule 2-4 times as long as carpophore, ovoid-globular, included. Seeds orbicular-reniform, tuberculate. Fl. March-July.