Primrose Family [Primulaceae] |
status
flower
flower
inner
morph
petals
stem
rarity
sex
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31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Here's the long and the short of it... The stems are bereft of any leaves; the only leaves are those in the basal rosette at ground-level. |
1976 - 1980, Teesdale | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
Grows up to 6 inches high in limestone areas mainly in and around Cumbria. |
1976 - 1980, Teesdale | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
Pin flowers. A cluster of lilac-pink flowers atop glaucous-green stems with short downy hair. |
1976 - 1980, Teesdale | Photo: © Jeremy Roberts |
Pin flowers. Five heart-shaped petals almost as flat as a plate. They look almost perfect, blemish-free. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A pair of densely populated inflorescences complete with glaucous-green shoe-horn shaped leaves. They eventually loose their covering of loose covering of a greyish powder-like substance and become bright-green. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A bird's-eye view of Bird's-eye Primrose. |
22nd June 2009, Haweswater, Silverdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Several flower stalks emerge from the same point. The flower has a long tubular section coloured a deep custard-yellow. The moniker Bird's-eye comes from not the deep-yellow colour of the centre, but the likeness it has to a bird's eye. |
22nd June 2009, Haweswater, Silverdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Leaf-like bracts surround the point where flower stems emerge. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
At first the stems, petioles and sepals are covered in a dusting of a greyish powder which wears off. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The greyish 'powder' is probably a covering of matted hairs which are easily abraded off, as can be seen by the bare patches here. |
22nd June 2009, Haweswater, Silverdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Thrum flowers. A deep yellow ring near the centre helps identification |
22nd June 2009, Haweswater, Silverdale, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Thrum flowers. The very centre houses a deep well containing five stamens with anthers bearing cream-coloured pollen. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Thrum-type flowers with the 5 anthers somewhat crowded together in the centre to look like pin-configuration Heterostyly |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
Your Author is unsure whether this is a Pin type flower, he thinks it more likely to be Thrum. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
The petals wither losing their pink shade and expressing a deeper blue coloration, possibly due to anthocyanins decomposing. |
31st May 2016, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
A basal rosette, this time one which still has matted greyish hair. |
9th July 2008, Hawes Water, Gait Barrows, Lancs. | Photo: © RWD |
This basal rosette has lost its greyish hairs and is now bright-green. Leaves shaped like shoe-horns. They have shallow pointed teeth. |
Some similarities to : Scottish Primrose but Scottish Primrose is much shorter and has much smaller flowers than does Bird's-eye Primrose. Bird's-eye Primrose has the most perfect-looking lilac-pink flowers with a yellow central 'eye', and look almost as if they were made of plastic. They have five petals with pronounced nicks in the middle of the ends, and are mostly planar, presenting a flat aspect. There are several flowers on the end of a slightly woolly downy upright stalk about 8 inches long. The stalk single arises from a basal rosette of long spoon-shaped sheeny leaves, that have irregular but small teeth along the edge. It grows in alkaline limestone areas in dampish places where the grass is fairly short.
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Primula | farinosa | ⇐ Global Aspect ⇒ | Primulaceae |
Primula (Primroses) |
Primrose Family [Primulaceae] |