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Portrait of Bird's-eye primrose

Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Bird's-eye primrose

Native · flowers May–Jun · damp limestone flushes and grassland in the northern Pennines

Primula farinosa — Primulaceae

Bird's-eye primrose is a small lilac-pink primula with a yellow eye, found on damp, base-rich limestone in the northern Pennines and the Lake District, where it is called the 'Yorkshire primrose'. The white meal on its leaf undersides, the farina that gives it its Latin name, distinguishes it from other primulas. It is a relict of the last Ice Age and is best sought in flushes on Ingleborough, in Malhamdale and in Upper Teesdale.

How to spot them

  • ▸Flat, five-lobed, lilac-pink flowers about 1 cm across, each with a yellow eye and deeply notched petals, in a tight umbel on a stalk to 20 cm
  • ▸Rosette of small, oblong, finely toothed leaves, with a white, powdery 'meal' beneath (farina means flour)
  • ▸Grows in damp, base-rich flushes and limestone grassland on ground kept wet by lime-rich water
  • ▸Flowers May and June, often with common butterwort
  • ▸Look-alike: Scottish primrose, Primula scotica, a dwarf with deep purple flowers, found only on the north coast of Scotland and Orkney; bird's-eye primrose is larger and lilac-pink, and grows in the northern Pennines and Lake District. Primrose and cowslip are yellow

How to know it

Lilac-pink flowers with yellow eyes on a stalk above leaves that are white and mealy beneath, in a damp limestone flush in the Yorkshire Dales

Bird's-eye primrose, Primula farinosa.

Known as the 'Yorkshire primrose', it is found almost only on damp ground over limestone in the northern Pennines and the Lake District

Bird's-eye primrose.

The specific name means 'floury', for the pale meal on the underside of the leaves

Primula farinosa — bird's-eye primrose.

Rare northern flush plants like this one, with Scottish asphodel and alpine bartsia, are the pride of the Moor House–Upper Teesdale reserve

Bird's-eye primrose.

A dwarf relative with deep purple flowers grows only on the north Scottish coast and in Orkney, whereas this lilac-pink species grows in northern England

The relative is Scottish primrose; this is bird's-eye primrose.

Wild Ingleborough, a 1,300-hectare Yorkshire Wildlife Trust project, aims to save this and other rare plants on the limestone

Bird's-eye primrose.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Native perennial of damp, base-rich limestone in the northern Pennines and the Lake District; often called the 'Yorkshire primrose'
  • •Flowers May and June, in flushes towards the top of Ingleborough and in Malhamdale, often with common butterwort (Yorkshire Dales National Park)
  • •Also grows in the calcareous flushes of Moor House–Upper Teesdale, with Scottish asphodel, alpine bartsia and false sedge (JNCC)
  • •In east Durham it grows on magnesian limestone grasslands alongside perennial flax and dark red helleborine (Durham County Council)
  • •Family Primulaceae, with primrose, cowslip and the Scottish primrose
  • •farinosa means 'mealy' or 'floury', from the white powder under the leaves
  • •Wild Ingleborough covers 1,300 ha and aims to restore limestone pavement, grassland and montane scrub, saving rare species including this primrose (Yorkshire Wildlife Trust)
  • •The Scottish primrose (Primula scotica) is a separate, rarer species, restricted to the north coast of Scotland and Orkney

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