YASIN J. NASIR

Plants farinose, 4-18 cm tall. Leaves 20-35 x 5.5-15 mm, in more less dense rosettes, elliptic-ovate to elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute, denticulate, midrib prominent on the undersurface, with white or yellow farina, glabrate at length; petiole winged, sheathing. Scape 4.2-17 cm long, up to 41 cm in fruit, robust or not, glabrous, farinose at the base of the bracts. Bracts 5-6 mm long, ovate-oblong, acute, margin glandular-ciliolate. Pedicel 1-2.5 mm long in fruit. Flowers heteromorphic, in dense capitate heads, pink-mauve. Calyx 4.5-5.5 mm long, campanulate, glabrous, ½-2/3 rd. cleft, lobes lanceolate-obtuse, margin glandular-ciliolate, often purplish tinged. Corolla tube 6-7 mm long; limb 6-9 mm broad, throat yellow, exannulate; lobes obovate, bibbed, not exceeding the tube. Style 1.5-2 mm long (in thrum-eyed flowers). Capsule ovaloid, barely exceeding the calyx. Seeds many, less than 1 mm long, angular, minutely reticulate-vesiculose, brownish.

Fl. Per.: May-July.

Holotype: S. Persia, 3000-3600 m, Kotschy 602 (W!).

Distribution: C. & S. Iran, C. & E. Afghanistan, Kurram and Chitral (Pakistan).

Not common. A plant found in boggy or wet ground from 2700-4900 m. Resembles Primula schlagintweitiana, from which it differs in the ovate-oblong bracts, the flowers in globose clusters and the minutely reticulate seeds.