Primula primulina

Fwd: Primula primulina ( Spreng.) H.Hara : 5 posts by 4 authors. Attachments (4).
Date: 26 JULY, 2014
Location: Kalinchok, Dolakha District, East Nepal
Altitude : 12500 ft.

Beautiful Primula. Looks very close relative of P. reptans. Never seen in alpines of Uttarakhand.

Thanks, … All the posts are wonderful, specially your photography.

A delightful & charming miniature correctly identified – note the boss (dense tuft) of white hairs in the throat which readily distinguishes it. Corolla purplish, rarely white. A member of the Minutissimae Section along with P.minutissima and P.reptans.  Recorded from central Nepal (Lantang, where it is locally abundant) through Sikkim to east Bhutan and just into Tibet.  Usually peaty hummocks and grassy banks in alpine meadows, on marshy valley floors or on cliffs and rocky places in Sikkim & Bhutan @ 3900-4900m.  There is a record from what was Kumaon – perhaps … will be able to find other colonies in Uttarakhand during his future explorations or already has?  Considered common & widespread in Eastern Himalaya in suitable habitats at these higher elevations.
Flowers of Himalaya give 3600 to 5200m for its range covering Nepal – so the population … photographed is very much at its lower altitudinal limit; one normally needs to trek much higher to find it.
I have not come across this plant during any of my Himalayan travels but seen a number of images incl. some from the extreme East of Nepal close to the border with Sikkim photographed during the British & Royal Nepalese Army Expedition to Mt. Kirat Chuli in 1985 by Dr Peter Curzon, the Medical Officer from New Zealand.  There is a fine tradition dating back to the 19th Century with medical officers collecting pressed specimens during mountaineering army expeditions.  A set of his pressed specimens are at Kew.

Further to my recent post.  This species was wrongly included in Stewart’s ‘An Annotated Catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Kashmir’ under its old name Primula pusilla on the basis of a Schlagintweitiana specimen from the Karakoram (Baltoro glacier).  Neither Nasir (Primulaceae of Pakistan) nor I have seen the specimen(s) but we both consider this to be a misidentification.  Another, even more fanciful record is Primula pulchra from Aphawat (above Gulmarg) in Records of Botanical Survey of India – cannot imagine which species which grows there this was mistaken for!

Yes, P. primulina.

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Primula primulina in FOI:
Images of Primula primulina in FOI look different from images and references at
Primula primulina (Spreng.) H. Hara
Pl. check.

I think you are right … Not so much hairiness visible in the throat!

Flowers look similar to images at Primula reptans Hook. f. ex Watt
But I think leaves look totally different and also do not have distribution in Arunachal as per POWO and CoL.

Yes, not P. primulina of course. I suggest P. minutissima.

There is a distinct flowering stem. So it doesn’t look like it could be Primula minutissima. I think I will post more pictures here for identification.

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References:
POWO  Catalogue of Life  The Plant List Ver.1.1   Tropicos  IPNI  BSI Flora of India Checklist  Flora of China (Primula primulina (Sprengel) Hara syn: Androsace primulina Sprengel, Syst. Veg. 4(2):57. 1827; A. primuloides D. Don; Primula pusilla Wallich; P. pusilla var. flabellata W. W. Smith.) FOC illustration  Annotated checklist of Flowering plants of Nepal  Flowers of India  Primula World  India Biodiversity Portal  Alpine Garden Society – Plant Encyclopaedia  Primula primulina photographs  Bhutan Biodiversity Portal