Usually 15 to 40 cm tall, this untidy biennial plant is best admired from a distance. Its succulent lower leaves, varying from dark green to red and even deep purple, are held close to the ground.The fragrant, four-petalled flowers, 8 to 15mm across, are usually white but sometimes tinged with mauve or purple. Once the short-lived petals have fallen from the flowers, roundish seed pods swell and ripen.Found throughout Britain and Ireland, Common Scurvy-grass occurs also in coastal regions of northern and central Europe; it is also found, although much less frequently, in some mountainous inland locations.
