Pinkish-lilac spurred flowers with dark purple lips are one of the harbingers of spring at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Delicate dark to blue-green foliage resembling that of a maiden hair fern appears with the flowers to 5 inches in height and width. This early spring ephemeral is great for planting under deciduous shade trees because it goes dormant as soon as the temperatures begin to warm in early summer.

This species is endemic (occurs no place else) to the Crimean peninsula, where it grows in deciduous woodlands and between shrubs on high elevation plateaus.