In North America, the heterostylous subsp. cuneifolia has been found only in the western Aleutian Islands. The homostylous subsp. saxifragifolia is found throughout most of Alaska and south to Vancouver Island. The subspecies differ somewhat in their vegetative morphology.

Primula cuneifolia and P. suffrutescens are the North American members of sect. Cuneifolia. The latter, an evergreen, mat-forming species endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, is sometimes placed into its own monotypic sect. Suffrutescens A. J. Richards.

This is the only other North American member of the Cuneifolia Primula group. It is unusual in having trailing stems which may be used t...Read More. Check out the largest plant identification database in the world. Read plant and insect reference guides at Daves Garden.

PRIMULA SECT. CUNEIFOLIA (PRIMULACEAE) IN NORTH AMERICA Sylvia Kelso Department of Biology, Colorado College, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 Abstract Section Cuneifolia is one of the smallest but most discrete sections in the large genus Primula. Its three members are characterized by cuneate leaves with dentate

Flowers rose-purple with a yellow eye, occasionally white, l-2cm across, two to fifteen in tight umbels on stems 5-15 cm high. Japan (ssp. heterodonta and hakusanensis), wet alpine slopes, along the Siberian coast and across the Bering Straits (ssp. cuneifolia), south to British Columbia in wet meadows often near the coast.

The native range of this subspecies is E. Siberia to N. Japan, Aleutian Islands to Alaska. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome. Alaska, Aleutian Is., Amur, Japan, Kamchatka, Khabarovsk, Kuril Is., Magadan, Sakhalin, Yakutskiya. Primula cuneifolia var. elongata E.A.Busch in Fl. Sibir. Orient. Extremi 65: 79 (1925)

First published in Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 16: 20 (1928) The native range of this subspecies is Kamchatka, Aleutian Islands to British Columbia. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the subalpine or subarctic biome. Primula cuneifolia var. saxifragifolia (Lehm.) Pax in H.G.A.Engler (ed.), Pflanzenr., IV, 237: 112 (1905)

First published in Mém. Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Pétersbourg Hist. Acad. 5: 522 (1815) The native range of this species is E. Siberia to N. & Central Japan, Aleutian Islands to Alaska. It is a perennial and grows primarily in the temperate biome.

Heterostylous representatives of Primula cuneifolia occur primarily in Asia, where this form predominates and the homostylous taxon is quite rare.

Subspecies cuneifolia is generally taller and more robust than subsp. saxifragifolia. It is known in Alaska from the outermost Aleutian Islands of Attu and Agattu; in Asia it occurs south through the Pacific Rim to the northern Japanese Islands.