Section Cordifoliae photographs

Section Cordifoliae Pax, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 10: 214. 1889.

Section Cordifoliae Pax, Pflanzenr. Primulacea. 120. 1905.
Section Rotundifolia Balf.f., Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 9: 152, 179. 1916.
Section Rotundifolia Balf.f., Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 16: 38. 1928.
Type species: P. rotundifolia Wall.

P. baileyana
P. caveana
--- P. cana
--- P. younghusbandiana
P. gambleana
P. littledalei
--- P. consocia
P. mackliniae?
P. ramzanae
P. rotundifolia
--- P. cardiophylla
--- P. cordata
--- P. cordifolia
--- P. odontophylla
--- P. roxburghii

Like many other sections, this section has a history as a mixed assemblage of species. Pax in 1889 included P. reticulata, P. grandis and P. pulchra in his section though all of these are now considered part of three other sections. No type species was defined by Pax, though P. cordifolia (=P. rotundifolia) was described in the same article in 1889. Smith & Fletcher followed Balfour in using the name "Section Rotundifolia" which Balfour used without description in 1916. I am following Richards and the Flora of China is using the name "Section Cordifoliae".
Section Cordifoliae is closely related to Section Crystallophlomis. Deciduous with a large resting bud, leaves suborbicular, rounded at the apex, clearly differentiated from the narrow petiole, with a rounded or cordate base (except P. caveana which is attenuate). Flowers annulate, purple or pink with a lighter eye, usually in a single umbel (2-3 whorls in P. rotundifolia, sometimes 2 in P. gambleana) , The status of P. mackliniae (spelling corrected according to the International Code of Nomenclature from P. macklinae) is uncertain as the specimen is incomplete and from a remote area of Burma and so has not been recollected. It is placed in this section by John Richards. P. tzetsouensis and P. barnardoana (= P. elongata) have been placed here by Smith & Fletcher but are currently considered part of Section Crystallophlomis.