March: Primrose
Call for the Spring
(Primula vulgaris, Primulaceae family)
A bunch of cream-yellow flowers of primrose caught my eyes in a woodland, somewhere in Switzerland or Black-Forest of South-West Germany many years ago. I was quite surprised that primrose grew in shady places because primroses, which I had seen in Japan, had always vivid colours such as pink, red, purple etc, and were planted in gardens, parks, not just grew in the wildness. Cream-yellow colour brightens up the shady woodland in the early spring.
Since we moved from Germany to the UK, South-East Wales, I can spot the pretty primrose here and there, in and around woodlands, parks and gardens. Where they are well protected from harsh wind and bitter coldness, you can see the flowers even in the late January!
There are 2 different types of flowers. I didn't know about that at all until I saw the illustrations of them in an old book, Wild Flowers of Britain (B.D. Inglis, 1958, Nelson). One is 'pin-eyed' and another is 'thrum-eyed'. The flowers of my print are probably 'pin-eyed'. The female stigma of pin-eyed flower appears in the middle of the corolla and the male anthers are underneath and not visible. The male anthers with pollen of thrum-eyed one appear in the middle of the corolla, and the female stigma is underneath and not visible.
'Pin-eyed': the female stigma appears in the middle of the corolla
'Thrum-eyed': The powdery male anthers in the middle of the corolla
(These two photos are from my own photo album.)
The reason why two different types of flowers exist doesn't state in this book. Luckily, I could find the reason on the internet. The website, Offwell Woodland and Wildlife Trust, based in East Devon and another website, First Nature, based in Wales, are quite useful. They have photos of the two types of flowers and put an explanation.
Darwin first pointed out the reason. This is to promote cross-fertilisation between the two different types of flowers. Fertilisation between the same type is not effective. As for pin-eyed one, only long-tongued insects such as butterflies can reach the nectar at the bottom. As the insect flies to the thrum-eyed flowers to collect nectar, the pollens on the insect are transported onto them. Or, other way round, the pollens of the thrum-eyed flowers on the insects are fallen into the corolla and reach the hidden female stigma when the insects fly over to them from the pin-eyed ones.
Now as for the leaves: The crinkly bright green leaves look like those of a kind of savoy cabbage or very green China-leaves. They are edible and can be cooked like those green vegetables.
Maybe I might try to make Primrose Vinegar with those leaves. There is an interesting recipe of 'Primrose (leaves) Vinegar' in The Hedgerow Handbook: Recipes, Remedies and Rituals (Adele Nozendar, Square Peg, 2012). The ingredients are simply leaves (plenty!), sugar, water and active yeast. It takes about a month until the vinegar is ready to use. Well, I need plenty of leaves and yet patience... I would try this with another leaves of such as nettle instead.
The edwardian naturalist, Edith Holden recorded in her Diary book of the year 1906, The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady (1977 edition, Webb&Bower), that she saw a quite a lot of primrose with large buds at the beginning of March those days. Later in the middle of March they had still snow and frost several times in Warwickshire, where she observed the flora and fauna. Here in South-East Wales, where I live, primrose starts flowering even in February. Primrose is in charge of calling for the spring.
