In the wild, it is fairly common in cultivated fields and by roadsides.  The stems are 1 to 3 feet high, somewhat angular and covered with a loose cottony down.  The narrow leaves are arranged alternately on the stem and are also covered in a white cobwebby down that gives the whole plant a somewhat dull and grey appearance.  The lower leaves are much broader and often have a roughly-toothed outline.  The flowers grow on long stalks with the inner part a pale purplish rose color and the outer, bright blue, large and widely spread.

The flowers are the part used in modern herbal medicine and are considered to have tonic, stimulant and emmenagogue* properties, with action similar to that of Blessed Thistle.  Culpepper tells us that the powder or dried leaves of the Bluebottle is given with good success to those that are bruised by a fall or have broken a vein inwardly. He also informs us that, with Plantain, Horsetail, or Comfrey, it is a remedy against the poison of the scorpion and resisteth all venoms and poisons.  The seeds or leaves (or the distilled water of the herb) taken in wine is very good against the plague and all infectious diseases, and is very good in pestilential fevers: the juice put into fresh or green wounds doth quickly solder up the lips of them together, and is very effectual to heal all ulcers and sores in the mouth.

*Emmenagogue: stimulates blood flow