Primrose – this one is pin-eyed

A sure sign of spring, Primroses (Primula vulgaris, family Primulaceae) are in flower: in our back garden, in Earlham Cemetery and in Grapes Hill Community Garden. They’re delightful and they provide an early source of nectar for long-tongued bees and early butterflies such as the Brimstone, Gonepteryx rhamni. They self-seed into tiny cracks in the garden paths and through rough grassland and along hedgerows. The small seeds are often dispersed by ants, a phenomenon known as myrmecochory.

The name Primrose comes from prima rosa, the first flower of the year – and if you discount introduced bulbs such as the Snowdrop, the name is very apt.

It is well known that Primrose flowers come in two forms: pin-eyed and thrum-eyed (see pictures). In pin-eyed flowers the style is longer than the stamens, so when you look at a flower you see a “pin” – the stigma at the top of the style. In thrum-eyed flowers the stamens are longer than the style, so you see the anthers. The flowers are adapted for cross-pollination, with the pollen from pin-eyed flowers pollinating thrum-eyed flowers and vice-versa.

But there is also a third type of flower, a homostyle, where the anthers and the style are of the same length. These flowers can self pollinate, which may confer an advantage to the Primrose when it grows in more marginal areas (reference).

Many of the gaudy bedding Primulas are derived from Primula vulgaris, but what they gain in colour they lose in subtlety.

Primrose flowers are mild in flavour and they’re mainly used for decoration, though there are various recipes for them. Young flowers can be made into primrose wine. The leaves are edible too but I haven’t tried them.