Biennial or short-lived perennial, from the Campanulaceae family, native to Central and Western Europe, found from the plains to the lower mountain levels. It grows in poor meadows, woodland edges, grassy banks, and roadsides, generally on fresh to moderately dry, well-drained soils.
It develops an airy and light silhouette, with slender, branched, and very spreading stems, reaching 30 to 60 cm in height. The foliage is discreet: basal leaves in a rosette, oblong to spatulate, the cauline leaves narrower and sessile, of a medium green. The whole plant gives an impression of great vegetal lightness, almost thread-like at the time of flowering.
The flowers are widely flared, with well-opened and slightly toothed lobes, of a bright blue-violet, borne individually at the end of very branched thin branches, creating a characteristic cloud of color. It is precisely this diffuse and abundant aspect, without apparent foliar mass, that immediately distinguishes C. patula in the genus.
In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from June to August. In cultivation, it self-seeds spontaneously and can thus perpetuate itself in the garden.
It appreciates a well-drained soil, poor to moderately rich, in full sun or light partial shade. Suitable for flower meadows, naturalized rock gardens, and cottage-style gardens.