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Parry primrose, Parry's primrose

Habit Plants 15–50 cm, herbaceous; rhizomes short, stout; rosettes often clumped; vegetative parts efarinose.
Leaves

rankly aromatic, indistinctly petiolate;

petiole broadly winged;

blade without deep reticulate veins abaxially, broadly lanceolate or oblanceolate to oblong-obovate, 1–33(–40) × 1.5–7 cm, thick, margins almost entire or remotely denticulate, apex rounded to acute, surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescences

5–25-flowered;

involucral bracts plane, unequal.

Pedicels

arcuate, somewhat thick, 10–50 mm, length 1–6 times bracts, flexuous.

Flowers

heterostylous;

calyx green, often purple tinged, cylindric to campanulate, 8–15 mm;

corolla magenta, tube 5–20 mm, length 0.9–1 times calyx, with prominent glands basally and distally, limb 10–25 mm diam., lobes 5–12 mm, apex emarginate.

Capsules

ellipsoid to cylindric, length 1 times calyx.

Seeds

without flanged edges, reticulate.

2n

= 44.

Primula parryi

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Subalpine bogs, streamsides, wet meadows
Elevation 2700-4200 m (8900-13800 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; UT; WY
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Primula parryi has the largest and most showy plants of the native North American primroses, growing to almost 50 centimeters in protected sites. It is common on subalpine streamsides and also occurs on the alpine tundra in wet areas near snowmelt seeps. The strong skunky odor of this species is unique in the North American primroses, often lingering even on herbarium specimens. It is the most common species of the genus in the western United States.

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

Source FNA vol. 8, p. 300.
Parent taxa Primulaceae > Primula
Sibling taxa
P. alcalina, P. angustifolia, P. anvilensis, P. borealis, P. capillaris, P. cuneifolia, P. cusickiana, P. egaliksensis, P. incana, P. laurentiana, P. mistassinica, P. nutans, P. pumila, P. rusbyi, P. specuicola, P. stricta, P. suffrutescens, P. tschuktschorum, P. veris
Name authority A. Gray: Amer. J. Sci. Arts, ser. 2, 34: 257. 1862 ,
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