Primrose Ripples — Print

Presumably primrose

Is this a true primrose? Primrose (Primula vulgaris) gets its common name from the Latin “prima rosa” meaning first rose, describing its early spring flowering. The flower shown here is a double variety of primrose, attractive to humans for its extra petals. Plant breeders exploited a natural mutation which resulted in the loss of reproductive parts and gain in petals, resulting in floral structures different from the traditional primroses. These double primroses are sterile, which means they cannot produce seeds. Even if pollinators visit these flowers for their colours and odours, they will find it hard to locate pollen. The plants put their energy into having long-lasting flowers for others to enjoy.

Unlike these double flowers, most single primroses, which are found in the wild in UK, have different (heterostylous) forms of the flower – a feature studied by Darwin. These distinct forms are known as “thrum” and “pin”, reflecting the positions of the male and female parts, evolved to avoid self-pollination. Thrum flowers have long pollen-producing stamens and short female stigmas, but pin flowers have short stamens and long stigmas. Pollination in this case is easy when a pollinator moves from a thrum to a pin flower.

So next time you plant primroses, choose carefully – if they are for pollinators, thrum and pin flowers are essential, but if they are for you, then double or single, it does not matter.