Stemless and tufted, white-hairy. Leaves 10-15cm long, of twenty-one to thirty-one elliptic to lanceolate leaflets. Flowers in dense spikes of five to fifteen 1.5-2cm long, whitish, pale yellow or violet on scapes 10-20cm tall, summer. Northern Europe and mountains farther south. O.c. subsp. campestris usually has yellow flowers. Subsp. tirolensis is light violet or white (eastern and central Alps only). Subsp. sordida has yellow or light violet flowers (northern and eastern Fennoscandia and Arctic Russia). For O.c. subsp. dinarica, see O. urumovii.
