[1][2] It is native to parts of Europe and introduced to the United States and Canada, Great Britain, and Sweden.

[3][4] It is a wiry plant with numerous branching stems, narrow leaves, and flowers growing solitary at the ends of branches.

[5] It is commonly cultivated in rock gardens and used along borders, escaping to grow in lawns, along roadsides, along shorelines, and in other sandy disturbed areas.

[2][4][6] Tunic flower was originally described as Dianthus saxifragus by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 and renamed Petrorhagia saxifraga in 1831.

[7][8] The genus and species name refer to its natural habitat: rock crevices.