Do I have a confused Cowslip (Primula veris) ??

[Purplepixii]

Hiya

I noticed today that my Cowslip has flowered (just the one flower so far) and I'm a bit confused as from everything I've read it usually flowers in March/April through to May. Mine did flower during those months this year.

Has my Cowslip gotten itself (and me!) confused??

Sarah

[Dorts]

Hi Sarah.
We had a similar thread a couple of days ago and it turned out not to be a Cowslip.
What I said at the time was that it is not at all unusual for plants to flower a second time in the autumn, but it is quite uncommon for Cowslips to flower twice, that is the 'true' Cowslip, not Primula hybrids which often flower at odd times.
Maybe you could post a pic. of your plant?
It seems to be one of those years when a lot of plants are flowering again. I think this is almost certainly due to the very hard winter we had , and buds being damaged by the cold.
Dorts.

[Purplepixii]

Thanks for the reply Dorts

I did search for similar threads but must have missed the one you referred to unfortunately.
I didn't think that this plant was a hybrid but I could be wrong. I'll take some photo's in daylight tomorrow and post them up here for confirmation.

Cheers
Sarah

[Purplepixii]

Here are 3 photo's taken this morning:

Flower Head



Side of Flower Head



Leaves



I'm looking forward to replies
Sarah

[Dorts]

Sarah.
Thanks for posting the pics. I would say that your plant is about 85-90% true Cowslip. Thats pretty average for any plant of garden origin and even many plants in the wild. They vary because of the probability that at some time there has been hybidization with the Common Primrose.
True Cowslips are a very distinct species and as I said in my earlier post, don't often flower a second time, but add that bit of Primrose, (which gives us a Polyanthus) and we will often find them flowering at various times of year.
Dorts.

[Brocakat]

There's two major variations of wild Primrose; Cowslips ; then there are Oxlips and finally - there is the False Oxlip.

[Dorts]

Originally Posted by Brocakat

There's two major variations of wild Primrose; Cowslips ; then there are Oxlips and finally - there is the False Oxlip.

Cowslips, Primroses and Oxlips are distinct species, not 'variations' of a Primrose.
The False Oxlip is a hybrid between a Primrose and a Cowslip.
Dorts.

[Brocakat]

Originally Posted by Brocakat

There's two major variations of wild Primrose;


Cowslips ;


then there are Oxlips


and finally - there is the False Oxlip.

Above - that would be 5 Primulacae specie I thought I had named.
Thanks for pointing out that the False Oxlip is a hybrid - I therefore listed 4 Primulacae and that hybrid.

The above is hopefully laid out better for ones' understanding.
Perhaps the confusion was with my use of semi colons ?

However the wordage is exactly the same as previous.....

[Paul mabbott]

Coincidentally (or not) I have a Primula polyanthus coming into flower today: very cheerful it is too!

People can get confused by the names of primulas (members of the genus Primula in the family Primulaceae - especially when mixing Latin (e.g. polyanthus with English (e.g. primrose)!

Wikipedia is quite good on the nomenclature:
Primula - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Dorts]

Let's clear things up.
There are 5 members (species) of the Primrose family native to Britain. They are:
Primrose - Primula vulgaris. Yellow flowers.
Cowslip - P. veris. Yellow flowers. Occasionally orange/red.
Oxlip - P. elatior. (Central Eastern England only). Yellow flowers.
Birdseye Primrose - P. farinosa. (Central N England only). Pink flowers.
Scots Primrose - P. scotica. (Far N.E. Scotland only). Purple flowers.

Known hybrids are :
P. vulgaris x elatior.
P. elatior x veris.
P. vulgaris x veris. (False Oxlip).
P. elatior x veris x vulgaris.

The hybrid P. vulgaris x elatior = P. polyantha, the False Oxlip, gave us our garden 'Polyanthus'.

The Common Primrose comes in two forms 'Pin-eyed' and 'Thrum-eyed'.
Dorts.