Primula scotica

[Linda_Foulis]

Can anyone tell me more about this plant?  How rare is it, is it on the endangered list? 

[Maggi Young]

Linda, have a look at these pages to see something about the finding/flowering of Primula scotica...
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=85.msg16694;topicseen#msg16694..... especially the posts by Darren Sleep...

Also here for photos etc...
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=155.msg14228;topicseen#msg14228

[Maggi Young]

And some pages from the archived Forum : http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/15316.html

http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/2594.html


http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/283/14481.html

http://www.srgc.org.uk/discus/messages/321/22956.html

 Hope that is some help to you.  The old forum is fuuly searchable, though archived,  its home page is:
 http://www.srgc.org.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics

Primula scotica has a very restricted distribution in northern Scotland and the Islands......not easy to find anyway, since it is so diminutive... a mature plant would only be two inches or so across and barely that in height   in full flower. Seed scapes might reach up to three inches!

[Maggi Young]

Distribution map :
 http://www.searchnbn.net/interactive/map.jsp?srchSp=NBNSYS0000003925&BBOX=-72073.6000000006,518950.399999994,667126.4,1258150.39999999&MAPSERVICE=interactiveGBv4&OS=OS&ghost=1&LAYERS=2,3,4,5,20,500,501,502,503,504,505

Scottish Biodiversity web-page ;
http://www.biodiversityscotland.gov.uk/sbl_detail.php?id=39&type=2&navID=93&pageref=sbl_detail&tvk=NBNSYS0000003925

[Casalima]

A couple of photos of P. scotica in the Kew alpine house last Easter. The second one clearly shows how very, very tiny the plants are!

[Linda_Foulis]

Thank you very much Maggi and Chloe.  I must not have searched properly as I only got back one entry from the forum.
It's a pretty little thing isn't it.

[Maggi Young]

This is a delightful little primula, Linda.  Not very long-lived, like so many of its cousins... Oh! for truly perennial versions of these many beauties!

It  can be "locally plentiful" in some areas of its very limited distribution but remains a rare plant. Grazing by sheep of the areas where it lives is vital to keeping the grassland in a suitable condition for its continued success... it is too little to cope with long grasses.  It seems that, although this is one of our loveliest endemics, it is not rare enough to warrant any more than LC ( least concern) status in the red data book listings, although it has higher status in worldwide responsibilities for its conservation because of being an endemic.

[Paul T]

What an absolute cutie!!