The delicate plants of Gagea graeca flower for only a short time, usually in April and then seem to disappear without trace until the following spring. Like many of the monocotyledonous spring flowers, they survive the rest of the year as underground bulbs. The pure white flowers are marked on the outer petals with a distinctive purple line.

G. graeca has a limited natural distribution, occurring naturally only in the Balkans,  Anatolia and the Eastern Mediterranean, including of course many Greek islands: it grows in phrygana and stony fields, sometimes forming quite large colonies.