The common cuckoo flower is widespread throughout Europe from Scandinavia in the north to the north of Spain, Italy and Greece in the south.Cuckoo-colored inflorescences are corymbose panicles located at the very top of the shoots.
But the leaves of the plant are of two types: stem - opposite, sessile, narrow lanceolate or lanceolate, small (no more than 15 cm), naked; basal - spatulate, obverse lanceolate, petiolate.
Common cuckoo is a perennial herb with fine roots. Stems are erect, branching, reaching 0.3 to 0.9 m in height.
Basal leaves are spatulate, obverse lanceolate. Stem leaves are opposite, sessile, lanceolate, glabrous on both sides, up to 15 cm long. Flowers are collected at 3-30 in loose corymbose inflorescences at the top of the shoot, about 3 cm in diameter. Bracts narrow lanceolate, up to 2.5 cm long. The calyx is campanulate, membranous, with a serrated edge. Corolla is bright pink, less often white, petals are narrow, deeply divided into two linear lobes, broadly ovate. Pistils in number 5.
The fruit is a broad-ovate capsule with five folds. Seeds are dark brown or black, bumpy.
