Hairy, rhizomatous perennial up to 30cm. Leaves grouped in basal rosette, fleshy or leathery, usually woolly in axils, linear-oblanceolate, sometimes pinnatifid; flowers small in dense, narrowly cylindric spikes, whitish, corolla tube hairy; stamens 4 with an abundance of powdery pollen

Latin: crassus = thick, dense, folium = leaf; referring to the fleshy leaves.