Primula malvacea Franchet, Bull. Soc. Bot. France. 33: 65. 1886.
Section Malvacea
Link to Flora of China description
Type specimen: Delavay 82 resides at Paris (specimens P05250363, P04544248, P04544254, P04544256, P04544257) and Herbier de l’Universite Montpellier II (specimens MPU022028, MPU022029) and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024183) and NY Botanic Garden (specimen 00329545) and KEW (specimen K000750019) and British Museum (specimen BM000996819).
P. atrotubata (syn): W.W.Sm. & Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 14: 33. 1923. Type specimen: Forrest 20508, F. K. Ward 4351 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024184) and British Museum (specimen BM000996821) and Paris (specimen P00649628) and KEW (specimen K000750026).
P. barybotrys (syn): Hand.-Mazz., Anz. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Math.-Naturwiss. Kl. 1923, lx. 116 (1924). Type specimen: Handel-Mazzetti 7382, 7568 resides at Universität Wien (specimens WU0059707, WU0059708) and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024185) and Paris (specimen P00649630).
P. langkongensis (syn): Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 4: 216. 1908. Type specimen: Forrest 2779 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024182) and KEW (specimen K000750018).
P. malvacea var. alba (syn): Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 14: 48. 1923. Type specimen: Forrest 21557 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024192) and KEW (specimen K000750017) and US National Herbarium (specimen US00116489). White variant.
P. malvacea var. intermedia (syn): W. W. Sm. & Forrest, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh. 14: 48. 1923. Type specimen: Forrest 12586, 16276, 16495, 16795, 21425, F. K. Ward 4521 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024181) and Paris (specimens P04544241, P04544242, P04544244).
Epithet: Named for the flower arrangement on the scape resembling that of the Malvaceae family.
Distribution: N Yunnan, NW Sichuan
An efarinose species distinguished by the numerous whorls of flowers or racemes and the foliaceous calyx which continues to grow as the flower ages; the broad lobes are patent and expose the the globose capsule which opens by valves. Flowers are pale to dark rose, occasionally white. Leaves are broadly ovate to suborbicular, rounded at the apex, deeply cordate at the base, undulate to crenate at the margin, with a distinct petiole and pubescent mixed with long hairs on the upper surface, and pilose on the veins of the lower surface.
There has been past confusion with P. neurocalyx which is distinguished from P. malvacea by the shape of the calyx lobes which are oblong to oblong-lanceolate and by the distribution which is further north.
