Primula farinosa, the bird's-eye primrose, is a small perennial plant in the family Primulaceae, native to Northern Europe and further south at high altitudes in the mountains of southern Europe. It is also widespread in northern and central Asia. This primrose thrives on grazed meadows rich in lime and moisture.
Description
Bird's-eye primrose is a herbaceous plant with a flowering stem that may reach . However, like all primulas its leaves are all basal, attached directly to the base of the plant. Their leaves can measure long by 3 to 20 millimeters wide. Their shape ranges from oblanceolate to elliptical with a wide angled end and smooth or finely toothed edges. Plants can be farinose, covered in powder, or lack it, but are usually at least farinose on the underside of the leaves. The mealy powder ranges in color from white to sulfur.
The inflorescence it atop a scape, a leafless stem, that will measure 3 to 20 cm tall with two to twenty flowers. The flowers are between 8 and 16 mm in diameter and are usually lilac-pink, but can occasionally be white or purple. It has no recognized subspecies or varieties, but it has synonyms.
In Asia it is native as far south as the central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, and Tadzhikistan. It grows in all Asian Russia from western Siberia to the Magadan Oblast and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. It also grows on the Russian controlled Kuril Islands. To the south it is found in Mongolia and two parts of China, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.