.jpg)
Biennial of the Campanulaceae family, endemic to Greece, mainly known from the limestone massifs of the Peloponnese and a few islands of the Aegean Sea. It occupies screes, rock crevices, and dry rocky areas exposed to the sun, at varying altitudes, from coastal garrigues to mountainous levels.
It forms small spreading rosettes, with crenate oval leaves, a grayish-green covered with a dense tomentum that gives them a very characteristic velvety texture, clearly visible in photographs of cultivated rosettes. This silvery-gray foliage is an attraction in itself, even before the appearance of the floral stems.
These slender, pubescent, and often reddish stems bear elongated tubular bell-shaped flowers with star-spread lobes, in a bright violet-lilac. The pubescence also covers the calyx and the base of the corolla, giving the whole a slightly downy appearance.
In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from May to July. In cultivation under a temperate climate, it generally occurs from June to August. The plant dies after flowering; maintaining it in cultivation requires regular sowing.
It requires absolute drainage, a poor mineral substrate, and a warm and sunny exposure. Sensitive to excess winter moisture, it is advantageously cultivated in an alpine trough or in a pot under cold shelter.