The Wild Primrose

The month of January, cold and bleak as it may be, with little sign of life in the countryside save the occasional foraging Wren, still holds promise. Native flora like Wild Primroses, Primula Vulgaris, may be seen in sheltered parts of the hedgerows and woods around this time of year, poking their way through the frozen earth to introduce a hint of spring to the winter landscape.

Its scientific name simply translates as ‘first’ and ‘common’ as it is often the first flowering plant to be seen and is common throughout the British isles.

They flower from late February to May so are closely associated with Easter, and their light green leaves and simple yellow flowers brighten up the countryside at a time when there can be little other colour.

Pin and Thrum eyes

Primrose are a perennial plant, meaning they can be found in the same places year-after-year and thrive in sun or partial shade, preferring a sheltered site with moist soil. They can be found decorating a wide variety of sites including hedgerows, road-side verges, grassy banks, woodland glades and rides and along stream banks.

Their simple flowers each have their own leafless stalk and large, crinkled, leaves about 10cm long, which taper gradually into the stalk. If you look closely at the plants you can see that each plant has two types of flower, these are called ‘thrum-eyed’ and ‘pin-eyed’.

Thrum-eyed flowers have a short stigma and pin-eyed have a long stigma, sticking out like a pin. The stigma is the central, projecting, part of the flower and the head of the ‘pin’ is called a style, this is surrounded by smaller parts which are called anthers, these are the parts of flowers which bear pollen. The collective name for the reproductive parts of a flower is ‘stamen’.

Having two types of flower means that cross-fertilisation is far more likely to take place as visiting bees and other insects will have the pollen transferred onto different parts of their bodies, depending on which type of flower they visit.

When they visit the next flower the chances are it’ll be of the other type so the pollen will be transferred to a different part of the flower.

Multi-purpose Plant

Being one of the first flowers makes Primrose of great value to the first pollinating insects to emerge and it is a very useful plant to us as well.

For one thing the leaves and flowers are edible, tasting a little bit like lettuce, they are quite good for garnishing spring dishes, especially if used with a few Wood Sorrel leaves to add a bit of sharpness, and can be used to make salads too.

The plant also has medicinal purposes, with the leaves and flowers of the plant used both fresh and dried.

The roots of Primrose can be used when dried, and a special infusion of the roots can be used to treat headaches, muscular aches, rheumatism and gout. The leaves can be used to relieve toothaches, the recommended method being to rub the aching area with a Primrose leaf for two minutes. The juice also has its uses as it is said to cure spots and acne.

Nowadays it is commonly used as an ingredient in cough mixtures although it’s not to be confused with the Evening Primrose, also used for similar purposes, which is not native to the British isles, being a garden escapee and originally from America, you can find this growing in the sand dunes at Lytham (below).

A similar, and related, plant to the Primrose is the Cowslip, Primula veris which grows in the same habitats and also blooms early in the year but is rarer and grows taller and with tighter flowers. I’ll write about the Cowslip and another, even rarer, member of the Primrose family which grows in the northwest called the Oxslip, in another post.

A Rock there is whose homely front
The passing traveller slights;
Yet there the glow-worms hang their lamps,
Like stars, at various heights;
And one coy Primrose to that Rock
The vernal breeze invites.
What hideous warfare hath been waged,
What kingdoms overthrown,
Since first I spied that Primrose-tuft
And marked it for my own

(Excerpt from The Primrose of the Rock, by William Wordsworth)

A B-H