巴蜀报春 ba shu bao chun

Primula calciphila Hutchinson.

Herbs perennial. Rhizomes comparatively thick, with dry petioles of old leaves at apex. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole 4--13 cm, with copious multicellular white hairs, vaginate at base; leaf blade ovate-rotund to ovate-elliptic, 2--5 X 2--5 cm, base cordate to subtruncate, palmately lobed to 1/3--2/5 or more its width, apex rounded, sparsely white pilose; lobes oblong to subrotund, margin nearly entire or crenate-dentate. Scapes 4--15 cm, with copious multicellular white hairs; umbels solitary, 3--8-flowered, occasionally with a superimposed, 2- or 3-flowered umbel; bracts linear to linear-lanceolate, 5--12 mm, glandular pubescent. Pedicel 2--4 cm, densely glandular pilose. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx 5--8 mm, enlarging to 1 cm in fruit, inflated at base, subglobose or conical, pubescent, parted to 1/3 or nearly to middle; lobes triangular, margin entire, apex acute or subobtuse. Corolla rose to pale lilac or nearly white; tube 2--3 X as long as calyx, glandular pubescent outside; limb 2--3 cm wide; lobes obovate, apex 2-cleft. Pin flowers: stamens below middle of corolla tube; style ca. 2/3 as long as tube. Thrum flowers: stamens at middle of corolla tube; style in lower 1/3 of tube, shorter than calyx. Capsule globose, 5--6 mm in diam., shorter than calyx. Fl. Feb-Mar. 2n = 24@.

* Dry limestone cliffs; ca. 500 m. W Hubei, S Shaanxi