Primula calderiana - Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose

Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose is a beautiful high-altitude primrose found in NE India. Flowers are dark purple to magenta with a golden eye, borne in umbels atop leafless stems 5-30 cm tall. Leaves are spoon-shaped to inverted-lanceshaped, toothed, 5-20 x 1-3.5 cm. Flowering stem is much taller than the leaves, a feature which distinguishes it from Blue Golden-Eyed Primrose. Flowers are up to 2 cm across, with obovate overlapping petals. The flower-tube is twice as long as the sepal cup. Sepal cup is often tinged with purple, bell-shaped, 5--8 mm, glandular, parted to middle, sepals ovate to ovate-oblong, tip blunt to pointed. Flowers are dark purple to rich maroon, rarely white, tube 1-1.4 cm, limb 1.5-3.5 cm wide, petals broadly obovate to circular, notched. Purple Golden-Eyed Primrose is found in alpine meadows, streamsides in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 3800-4700 m, in Bhutan, NE India, Nepal and Sikkim. Flowering: June-July.