Primula verticilllata - in situ

[Maggi Young]

As I understand it, simensis is  P. verticillata ssp. simensis ....... Have you Richards book?
Have a root around in the forum (old and New), since this has been discussed before I think.
Sorry for hasty reply but just back from weekend away and over 600 emails/posts to sort through and deal with!

[ashley]

Will do, Maggi; thanks.

[ashley]

Have a root around in the forum (old and New), since this has been discussed before I think.

Unfortunately I couldn't find much on verticillata & nothing on simensis, but maybe that's the search engine 

Any guidance on distinguishing simensis / verticillata / x kewensis appreciated!

[David Nicholson]

Ashley,

I have Richards open on my desk.

"Primula simensis differs from P. verticillata as follows: heavily mealy so that leaves generally appear white; leaves usually neatly, and regularly toothed to a third of the leaf length, lateral veins about 7; corolla tube 20-30mm in length. In general a neater and more attractive plant than P. verticillata to which it is undoubtedly closely related"

"In 1899 a seedling of P. floribunda at Kew gardens was found to resemble P. veticillata, although with the leaf shape of it's mother. Later intentional crosses with P. v onto P. f proved the parentage of this cross (in fact it seems very possible that the pollen parent was not P. v but the closely related P. simensis). These hybrids were sterile, having poor chromosome pairings at meiosis (2n=18). However , they were vigorous growers and offsets were distributed. These formed fertile breeding lines on three separate occasions..........   Newton and Pellow interpreted this as alleotetraploidy, where a diploid hybrid, rendered sterile by poor chromosone pairing at meiosis, becomes fertile and true-breeding, effectively a 'new species'. after chromosome doubling. This hybrid P. x kewensis was the first case in which allotetroploidy had been shown to occur in cultivation."

I hope this helps and apologies for any mistyping and misspelling (I didn't understand most of what I was typing). If you need anything else give me a shout and I will look it up for you.

[shelagh]

Thanks for the heads up Frazer I'll certainly look out for it along with all the other forumists.

[Maggi Young]

David, many thanks for your assistance with the Richards' quotes.

 Ashley, I may have been mistaken.... there are few results for P. x kewensis, whicI had thought would lead you to useful info... perhaps it was in a Journal... when time permits I'll have a search around!

[ashley]

"Primula simensis differs from P. verticillata as follows: ...

Many thanks, David; that's most helpful.  Unfortunately I don't have Richards' book & greatly appreciate the trouble you've taken.  Look's like my simensis is correct then

Thanks too Maggi (& with apologies for adding to that workload  )

[Maggi Young]

Thanks too Maggi (& with apologies for adding to that workload  )

Good grief, no problem... just made me hungry, that's all!

[Giles]

3 photos.
What I've got as labelled 'P.verticillata' is very different to what I've got labelled as 'P.simensis'
The P.verticillata is massive, the P.simensis is compact. Most of the meal on the P.simensis has been washed off
but you can see how thick it is in the crown of the plant. The leaf detail is of the 'P.verticillata'.
I grew P.x kewensis about 20 yrs ago from 'Suttons Seeds' and what came up had no meal at all.
1. 'P.verticillata'
2. 'P.v' leaf
3. 'P.simensis'
Comments greatly appreciated!!