Hymenonema graecum is a perennial herbaceous plant of 20–70 cm, that rests with its buds at or just under the surface of the soil (a so-called hemicryptophyte).

[3] The rosette consists of pinnately lobed leaves, the end-lobe largest, oval, with a rounded tip, and segments often with teeth.

In 1838 Augustin Pyramus de Candolle moved the species to Cassini's genus, recombining it with Linnaeus' epithet to Hymenonema graecum.

Confusingly, and also in 1838, Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent and Louis Athanase Chaubard in their Nouvelle Flore du Péloponèse et des Cyclades described Catananche graeca, but now based on a specimen from the Peloponnesos.

Pierre Edmond Boissier and Theodor von Heldreich realised that the plants described by Linnaeus and by Bory and Chaubard, belonged to related but different species, therefore the last assigned name was no longer available, and hence invalid.