Balf. f. & R.E. Cooper
Description
Primula strumosa is a Himalayan primrose recorded from Nepal, India, China, Bhutan and Japan, with about 152 GBIF occurrences along the central and eastern Himalaya. It grows in moist alpine and subalpine meadows, damp grassy slopes, rhododendron scrub and streamsides, typically between roughly 3300 and 4300 m. The plants photographed at Topke Gholam (about 3850 m, April) and at Rupina-La in Gorkha (about 3350 m, May) in Nepal exemplify its habit of flowering early in the season in wet montane turf, often soon after snowmelt when the yellow heads emerge above the developing foliage.
The species is a perennial rosette herb with a short rootstock and basal leaves that are oblong to oblanceolate, with crenate to denticulate margins, the blade narrowing into a winged petiole and frequently dusted with pale farina (meal) beneath. The flowering scape is erect and bears a terminal umbel of several flowers subtended by bracts. The corolla is yellow, salverform with a slender tube and spreading, notched lobes, the calyx campanulate and often farinose. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous small seeds, the flowers typically heterostylous with pin and thrum forms promoting outcrossing.
Primula strumosa belongs to the yellow-flowered Himalayan assemblage of section Petiolares and allies, a group of meal-bearing primroses centred on the high rainfall ranges from Nepal to Bhutan and adjacent China. These primroses are closely tied to permanently moist, cool habitats and to insect pollination of their distylous flowers. With a moderately wide range across the central-eastern Himalaya the species is not regarded as threatened, though as a moisture-demanding alpine specialist it is sensitive to changes in snow cover and meadow hydrology.
Author: Balf. f. & R.E. Cooper · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Richards' monograph Primula