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Perennial of the Brassicaceae family, native to the Caucasus and the mountains of eastern Anatolia, where it grows on rocks and high-altitude screes, in conditions of intense cold and marked summer drought.
It forms an extremely dense hemispherical cushion, composed of a multitude of tiny interlocking rosettes, from bright green to bright green-yellow. Each rosette does not exceed a few millimeters, and the entire cushion, rarely more than 3 to 5 cm in height, presents a granular and tight surface that irresistibly evokes a moss or a liverwort — this is precisely what the epithet bryoides denotes. This cushion can slowly widen over the years to form large, regular clumps of great clarity.
The shade of the cushion varies significantly according to the season and exposure: from a bright green-yellow in full growth, it takes on a gray-green to almost whitish hue outside of flowering, the tiny leaves being covered with a felt of star-shaped hairs that give them this characteristic powdery appearance. It is at this scale, observable only by leaning over the plant, that the full complexity of its structure is revealed.
The flowers have four petals of a bright and clear yellow, borne individually on very short slender stems that lift them just above the cushion, accentuating the contrast between the density of the foliage and the lightness of the flowers.
In its natural habitat, flowering extends from May to July depending on altitude. In cultivation under cold shelter, it can bloom as early as March-April.
It is cultivated in a terracotta pot or alpine box, with a very draining and mineral substrate. Protection against winter humidity is essential. It is a plant for collectors, whose value lies as much in the sculptural perfection of the cushion as in the flowering itself.