Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Parry's Primrose
Primula parryi
Primrose family (Primulaceae)

If, high in the mountains, not long after the snow has melted, a startling magenta arrests your eye, you have been caught by Parry's Primrose. Its color is intensified by the contrast with its own bright green leaves. Parry's Primrose loves to have wet roots so it is found on waterfall ledges, snow-melt areas, streamsides, and other wetlands. It is often scattered in the extensive patches of white flowering Marsh Marigolds. But Parry's beauty does have its limits; just lightly touching the plant will bring out a most unpleasant fetid odor.

Linnaeus named this in 1753: "Primula" is from the Latin for "early spring." In 1862 Asa Gray named the species for Charles Parry, famed collector of western plants, who collected the plant in 1861 on the "head-waters of Clear Creek, and the ridges lying east of Middle Park (Colorado]."


©2008 Tom Taylor

Description

, to 2' tall, ill-scented when crushed (who isn't?) from thick . Leaves to 1 1/2' and 2 to 4" wide, to or , to , and green on both sides. are 3-20 flowered, the pedicles to 4" long . to ~1/2" long, shorter than or nearly equal to the tube length. red-purple with a yellow center, to 1" wide, shorter than the tube. a .

Field Marks

Plant with long bright green and tall stems of numerous wide open magenta flowers.

© Al Schneider

An entire leaf has smooth edges. Not toothed or lobed.

oblanceolate -- top wider than bottom

capsule -- a type of simple, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. In most cases the capsule splits apart to release seeds.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.

lobe -- A rounded parts of a leaf (or other organ).

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

alpine -- above the tree line. Thin soil, rocks, short growing season, frost, winter snow.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

An umbel is a collection of flowers on short stalks which spread from a common point, somewhat like umbrella ribs. The arrangement can vary from being flat-topped to almost spherical.

spatulate -- spoon-shaped.

Glands are plant structures that secrete liquids, salts or other substances. Glands often appear as hairs with a drop of liquid at the end.

sinuate -- having a wavy or sinuous margin. Otherwise, rather flat.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

elliptic -- Oval, with no point or a very short point.

scape -- a long, leafless flower stalk coming directly from a root. The tulip has a scape.

calyx -- the sepals of a flower, typically forming a whorl that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

limb -- the expanded end of a tublar corolla.

rhizome -- root-like stems that may either grow horizontally at the soil surface or in other orientations underground.