Flora of North America species comparison

Primula incana is usually heavily farinose, at least when young, and has relatively tall scapes and tight umbels of homostylous flowers. As with some species of the genus, anthesis often begins before the scape is fully elongated; plants at first are quite small, but elongate throughout anthesis and typically become relatively tall and lanky in age. This has led to confusion with other arctic species, especially P. stricta, which has considerably less farina, a shorter scape, and a more maritime distribution. In fruiting stage, P. incana has been confused with P. laurentiana, which has looser umbels throughout anthesis, larger flowers, and a more eastern distribution. Primula incana generally replaces P. laurentiana to the west and south of Hudson Bay. The single octoploid count for P. incana is questionable; the species appears to be consistently hexaploid in other counts.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Primula anvilensis is known only from the Bering Strait region of Alaska: on the Seward Peninsula, in the Noatak River drainage to the north, and to the south in upland and mountainous zones near the Bering Sea. It sometimes grows with P. borealis along the Alaskan coast; it is readily distinguished by its white flowers, plane involucral bracts, and more delicate aspect.

The name Primula parvifolia sensu Fernald (not Duby) applies to this species. M. L. Fernald (1928d) based his description of P. parvifolia on material collected in the Nome area. Those plants are clearly P. anvilensis. Later, W. W. Smith and H. R. Fletcher (1943) and E. Hultén (1968) correctly included P. parvifolia as a synonym of P. borealis; they did not realize that a second, undescribed species existed along the Bering Strait.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)