Primrose

The March flowering of our native primroses is a welcome sight in the countryside.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Primula vulgaris
Family: 
Primroses
Family Latin name: 
PRIMULACEAE
Category: 
Flowering Plants
Vernacular names: 

Spinkie

Species description

Species description

The March flowering of our native primroses is a welcome sight in the countryside.  A typical clutch size for hens or geese is 13, and each primrose represents a chick in the old saying that if you bring fewer than 13 primroses into the house then that number is all hens and geese will lay or hatch that year.  Scatter primroses outside the byre door to stop faeries stealing the cows' milk.  Primroses and Marsh Marigolds, both the colour of the sun, were used in Beltane decorations.  If primrose flowers out of season it is a portent of death in the family.  Primroses are associated with courtship.  'The Primrose Path' is a path of delusional pleasure.  The whole plant has been used effectively for the treatment of muscular rheumatism, and also restlessness and insomnia.  A root infusion eases nervous headaches, and a flower infusion calms hysteria.  The flowers are edible and may be added to soups and rice.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)

Details

Species family information

This is a mainly temperate and cold region family, with many familiar wildflowers and cultivars amongst its members.

Category information

Nucleic multicellular photosynthetic organisms lived in freshwater communities on land as long ago as a thousand million years, and their terrestrial descendants are known from the late Pre-Cambrian 850 million years ago. Embryophyte land plants are known from the mid Ordovician, and land plant structures such as roots and leaves are recognisable in mid Devonian fossils. Seeds seem to have evolved by the late Devonian. The Embryophytes are green land plants that form the bulk of the Earth’s vegetation. They have specialised reproductive organs and nurture the young embryo sporophyte. Most obtain their energy by photosynthesis, using sunlight to synthesise food from Carbon Dioxide and Water.

The earliest known plant group is the Archaeplastida, which were autotrophic. Listing just the surviving descendants, which evolved in turn, we have the Red Algae, the Chlorophyte Green Algae, the Charophyte Green Algae, and then the Embryophyta or land plants. The earliest embryophytes were the Liverworts, followed by the Hornworts, and the Mosses. Then we have the Vascular Plants, the Lycophytes and Ferns, followed by the Spermatophytes or seed plants, the Gnetophytes, Conifers, Ginkgos, and Cycads, and finally the Magnoliophyta (Angiosperms) or flowering plants.