Cowslip - Primula veris



Scientific Name: Primula veris.

English Name: Cowslip

French Name: Coucou.

The first Cowslip of spring, photographed in March.
5 Key Characters:
  • 10-30 flowers in a head, spread in all directions, not just drooping to one side.
  • petals apricoty yellow with orange streaks.
  • flowers are cup shaped and fold down into a tube.
  • flowers are held in a downy, blunt oval toothed calyx.
  • very wrinkled leaves.
Lookalikes: Some hybrid garden primulas.

Habitat: Meadows, grasslands, open woods on basic or calcareous soils.

Flowering Period: March-April-May.

Status: Common.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature:



Cowslips in the lawn at the Chateau of Candé, near Tours.  The chateau grounds are run as a nature reserve and the lawns are full of wild flowers, including several species of orchid.
Photo taken mid-March.
In the lawn at friends house, in late February.
A group of cowslips in a lawn, including some which have mutated to have red flowers. This is a reasonably common mutation.

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