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© 2013 Margaret Eros
Woodland edge
Grassland (meadow)
© 2011 Margaret Eros
Woodland
The wild primrose is a protected species and on the red list of endangered species in Austria.
Plants live an average of between 10-20 years. Young plants flower for the first time at the age of about 20 months.
Flowers are typically of two types either thrum or pin flowers and the differences lie in the relative positions of anthers (male parts) and style (female part) in the flower tube. This makes pollination between same-type flowers difficult or impossible and encourages genetic diversity. Primroses easily hybridize (crossing with other related species) which has resulted in a profusion of varieties, some wild but many garden varieties that sometimes ‘escape’ and return to the wild.
Fruits are capsules; seeds are tiny with elaiosomes, nutritious attachments attracting ants that carry them away to their nests and so aid dispersal.
White
Yellow
Blue
Red
Other
• Backwater
• Marsh
• Damp Grasslands
•Scrub
• Cultivated Fields
• Wayside 
• Dry Grasslands
• Woodland
The cowslip is a perennial plant that overwinters in the form of a short, fleshy underground stem, a rhizome. The large, oval leaves grow from a basal rosette and taper towards the base, terminating in a widened stalk or petiole. The undersides of the leaves are pale green and rolled inwards when young. The toothed (dentate) margin of the leaves is irregular.
The flowers have a long tube and 5 stamens fused to the petals within the tube. They may be positioned near the mouth of the tube with the stigma of the female part below it and not visible (thrum arrangement) or alternatively, they may form a ring half way down the tube with the style and stigma of the female part passing through and appearing at the mouth of the tube like a pinhead (pin arrangement). The existence of these 2 distinct flower types, common also in other members of the primrose family, is thought to encourage cross pollination (between different flower types) and discourage self-pollination, a process that promotes genetic diversity.
This species frequently hybridizes with other Primulas such as Primula vulgaris to form False Oxlip (Primula x polyantha) which is often confused with true Oxlip (Primula elatior) which is a much rarer plant.( Botanists have found no less than twenty-five of these hybrid-forms in the Austrian Alps.)