Primula gracilipes Craib
Section Petiolares
Link to Flora of China description
Listed in Flora of Bhutan description
Link to Nepal checklist
Type specimen: Cave s.n., (1915, Yeumthang, E Sikkim) resides at E (specimen E00024628).
P. scullyi Craib: Type specimen: Scully s.n. (1876, Nepal) resides at E (specimen E00024627).
P. scullyi var. searightii Craib: Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 6: 256. 1917. Type specimen: Searight 44 (Chumbi) resides at ?.
P. sulphurea Craib: Type specimen: Strachey & Winterbottom Primula No. 10 (Suring, Kumaon) resides at K and BM (specimen BM000996874).
P. petiolaris Wall. var. sulphurea: Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3:493. 1882. Type specimen: Strachey & Winterbottom Primula No. 10 (Suring, Kumaon) resides at BM (specimen BM000996874).
P. nana G.Watt non Wall.( pro parte), J. Roy. Hort. Soc. 29:300. 1904.
P. petiolaris Wall. var. nana (G.Watt): Hook.f. (pro parte), Fl. Brit. India 3:493. 1882.
P. boothii: W.W.Sm. non Craib., Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 19: 208. 1937.
Epithet: Named for the slender pedicels.
Distribution: Sikkim, Darjeeling, Arunachal Pradesh, Nepal, Tibet (Xizang), Bhutan.
This species was once included in Primula petiolaris before being split out by Craib in 1917. It is widespread, variable and sometimes difficult to distinguish from related species. It is considered to be escapose, but in fruit it may have a very short scape (5mm). Primula gracilipes has a short rhizome and no basal scales at flowering. Leaves are rounded at the apex, margin sharply erose-denticulate, efarinose or farinose. At flowering, blade oblong-spathulate to elliptic, base tapering to a broad, winged petiole, later developing leaves, blade obovate-elliptic, base rounded into a distinct petiole that is equal or longer to the leaf blade. Scape obsolete at flowering, may develop in fruit to 5mm. Scape and pedicels glandular or distinctly farinose. Bracts narrowly deltoid to linear-lanceolate, attenuate at the apex. Calyx campanulate to tubular-campanulate, farinose within and without, cut to the middle or below into oblong to ovate-oblong lobes, apex acuminate. Flowers annulate, heterostylous, pink-purple, occasionally pure white, with a yellow eye surrounded by a narrow white zone, lobes broadly obovate, notched or 3 toothed at the apex, abaxial surface farinose. Capsule subglobose, included in the calyx.
