Recent New Primula Species

Primula hydrocotylifolia. The New Year is a good time to reflect on what is new in Primula. In my Original Description Project, the list of all Primula species is a moving target. In particular, there have been several new Chinese species discovered and described recently but new...

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The Truth about the Blue Nivalids (P. melanops)

Habitat of Primula melanops. Primula melanops is a name which many people know from cultivated plants, but what is the true species? It was first collected by Handel-Mazzetti in Muli, north of Yanyuan, in 1914, but he didn't describe the plant until 1924 using the name P. leucochnoa....

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The Truth about the Blue Nivalids (P. farreriana)

Primula farreriana was collected by Farrer and Purdom in the “Ta-Tung Alps, Kansu” in June and July, 1915 (F. 560, Primula No. 29). Ta-tung is a small mountain range east of Qinghai Lake, Qinghai and could be considered a southern extension of the Quilian (Qilian) mountains. Farrer...

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The Truth about the Blue Nivalids (introduction)

I guess the first truth is that they really aren't blue, but they are certainly species which have purple flowers on the blue tone, rather than the red tone.   Secondly, the Nivalids are what we call members of the Crystallophlomis Section which use to be called the Nivales Section...

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The Chinese Virtual Herbarium (CVH)

A plant species is usually described from a type specimen which is stored in a herbarium. In trying to understand the Genus Primula, I look at Primula herbarium specimens which have been scanned and are available online on websites of herbariums around the world. Relevant websites can be...

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The Original Description Project

The Genus Primula was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 I started writing blog posts for Primula World as a means of keeping track of research I do behind the scenes while identifying Primula images for the Species Gallery. I consult many references in the process which includes Floras,...

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Primula dueckelmannii from the Wakhan Corridor

Primula dueckelmannii is a mystery species, described in 1959 and one that is known to be closely similar to Primula kaufmanniana from Turkestan. The description does not seem to match the herbarium specimen but apparently the difference between the two species is that P. dueckelmannii has...

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The Eye of the Flower - Annulate vs Exannulate

The eyes are the window of the soul. The eye of a Primula flower is its center which may be colored different from the rest of the corolla and which is the mouth or end of the flower tube containing the stigma or anthers (see Style Position). In Primula, whether the flower is annulate...

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The Lost World of Tibet Film by George Sherriff

George Sherriff (1898-1967) was a famous Scottish explorer and plant collector who travelled primarily with Frank Ludlow in the Eastern Himalayas. Together, they discovered many new plant species including many Primulas. Their expeditions are detailed in the Book "A Quest of Flowers" by H.R. Fletcher. George was an avid photographer and his still images showing plants in the wild are a precious source of information. He also made movies and one...

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P. strumosa or P. calderiana subsp. strumosa ?

  Primula strumosa The yellow flowered species, P. strumosa was described from plants found at Champa Pumthang in Bhutan and it was associated with P. elongata  which it distinguished in having a long seed capsule opening by valves. The purple flowered species, P. calderiana,...

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Primula Leaf Glossary

There are many terms that are used to describe Primula leaves and an understanding of what they mean is crucial to distinguishing species. Lamina, or leaf blade, is the flat part of the leaf. Apex is the point or tip of the lamina. Base is the bottom of the lamina. Veins appear as...

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A Primula from the Miocene - P. riosiae

The Miocene is a geological period extending from 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. It is during this time period that the apes arose and humans split to become their own lineage, open grasslands became more prominent and by the end of it almost 95% of modern seed plant families existed.   Evolutionary studies...

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Primula rebeccae A.J. Richards a synonym for Primula tenella King

Primula tenella was first discovered in the Chumbi valley, Tibet and was described by King ex Watt in Journal of the Linnean Society. Botany 20:13. 1882  (with a drawing) and also Hooker from Flora of British India 3:492.  Chumbi Valley - Reproduced by permission of Durham University...

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