美花报春 mei hua bao chun

Herbs perennial, with a bulblike stock formed by overlapping petioles and basal bud scales. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole initially inconspicuous, nearly as long as leaf blade at fruiting; leaf blade narrowly ovate to obovate-oblong or oblanceolate, 3--9 X 1.2--3 cm at anthesis, enlarging to 18 cm at fruiting, abaxially copiously greenish yellow farinose, base cuneate-attenuate, margin crenulate, apex rounded to obtuse. Scapes 10--30 cm, elongating to 60 cm in fruit, pale yellow farinose on distal part; umbels 3--10-flowered; bracts lanceolate to subulate, 5--12 mm. Pedicel slightly shorter than bracts at beginning of anthesis, elongating to 2--3 X as long as bracts in fruit, copiously farinose. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx tubular-campanulate, 6--13(--15) mm, densely yellow farinose inside, parted to middle or below; lobes narrowly oblong, apex obtuse to acute. Corolla purple, rose, or yellow, rarely white; limb 2--3 cm wide; lobes broadly obovate, emarginate. Capsule cylindric, slightly longer than calyx.

Pastures, meadows among Rhododendron, on rocks of steep humus-clad slopes; 3700--4500 m. SE Xixang, Yunnan [NE India (Assam), N Myanmar]

Lower Taxa

• Primula calliantha subsp. bryophila (I. B. Balfour & Farrer) W. W. Smith & Forrest
• Primula calliantha subsp. calliantha
• Primula calliantha subsp. mishmiensis (Kingdon-Ward) C. M. Hu