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Succulent perennial of the Crassulaceae family, endemic to the southwestern Alps, mainly in the Maritime Alps and the Cottian Alps, at the French-Italian border. It occupies siliceous rocks, scree, and fissures of slabs in full exposure, between 1,500 and 2,800 meters in altitude.
It forms dense clusters of globular and very tight rosettes, small in size, generally 2 to 4 cm in diameter, with thick, fleshy, oval-spatulate leaves, finely ciliated on the margins, from medium green to strongly tinged with reddish-brown depending on the sunlight and season. This almost perfectly spherical shape of the rosettes, evoking tiny sculpted artichokes, is the most immediately striking feature of the species.
Unlike Sempervivum, jovibarbas multiply not by stolons but by daughter rosettes that easily detach at the slightest contact — hence their English nickname "rollers" — and roll on the substrate to settle a little further away.
In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from July to August; the flowers, borne on a short stem, are bell-shaped, with fringed pale yellow petals, characteristic of the genus.
It requires a siliceous, very poor, perfectly drained substrate, in full sun. Perfectly hardy, it is suitable for alpine rockeries, gravel gardens, and cultivation in pots or troughs, where the geometry of its rosettes can be appreciated up close.