Primula crispata Balf.f. & W.W.Sm.
Section Capitatae
Link to Flora of China description (under P. capitata)
Link to Nepal checklist (under P. capitata subsp. crispata)
Type specimen: Cooper 951 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024409) and US (specimen US00116464).
P. capitata subsp. crispata (Balf.f. & W.W.Sm.) W.W.Sm. & Forrest (syn): Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 9:159. 1916.
Epithet: Named for the leaf margins being irregularly divided.
Distribution: Nepal, Sikkim, West Bengal, Bhutan, Tibet, Burma.
This species has often been listed as a subspecies of P. capitata or included within P. capitata subsp. capitata. It was re-elevated to a distinct species by Basak and Maiti in 2000 based on the efarinose leaf, discoid head, relatively larger flowers with wider spreading corolla lobes and slightly larger seed capsules. Also considered distinct is the seed coat pattern that is faintly dotted and finely reticulate with an alveolate cell-floor, as compared with P. capitata that has a seed coat which is rugose, rough and finally coralloid. The Flora of China notes that the type specimen of P. crispata has farina on the inner leaves, with only the outer leaves being farinose and so they include it within P. capitata subsp. capitata. P. capitata subsp sphaerocephala also has efarinose leaves but it distributed further east in SE Tibet and NW Yunnan.
