All of the edelweiss species are lovely, with silvery grey (occasionally green) mats of foliage and short, upright stems carrying the starry heads of flowers, which are always thickly covered in tiny hairs to give felt-like indumentum. In fact the flowers are insignificant, and the most visible and attractive parts are the softly hairy, silvery grey bracts, making a multi-pointed star. They are all mountain plants, but some are from rocks and stony places, some from grassy meadows, and some from woods.

Leontopodium nivale subsp. alpinum is the European edelweiss, which must be the most overpublicised alpine, no doubt contributing to its scarcity. It makes short tufts or mats of grey-green, hairy leaves, with short, upright or slightly spreading stems carrying the terminal flowers.