Primula strumosa Balf.f. & R.E.Cooper Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 9: 201. 1916.
Section Petiolares
Link to Flora of China description
Link to Nepal Checklist
Type specimen: Cooper 4072 resides at Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (specimen E00024689) and at US National Herbarium (specimen US00116516).
P. strumosa ssp tenuipes: C. M. Hu in Chen & C. M. Hu, Fl. Reipubl. Popularis Sin. 59(2): 292. 1990. Type Specimen Qinghai-Xizang Exped. 5688 resides at Beijing (PE) and C. Y. Wu et al. 75-0608 resides at Northwest Plateau Institute of Biology, Qinghai (HNWP) (specimen 53659). Leaf blade oblong and base obtuse to cordate.
P. calderiana subsp. strumosa (Balf.f. & R.E.Cooper) (syn): A.J.Richards, J. Scott. Rock Gard. Club 15(3): 211. 1977.
P. calderiana var. strumosa (Balf.f. & R.E.Cooper) (syn): S.K.Basak, Maiti & Hajra, Gen. Primula India 219. 2014.
See blog post: P. strumosa or P. calderiana subsp. strumosa?
Epithet: Named for the stamens having at their base a swollen cushion (struma) of the corolla joining them and forming a sort of second annulus.
Distribution: Nepal, Bhutan, and South Tibet to Arunachal Pradesh. Absent from Sikkim.
Primula strumosa is part of a complex of similar yellow flowered species which also includes: P. hillaris, P. jucunda, P. tanneri, P. tsariensis, P. elongata and P. barnardoana. Considered by John Richards to be a subspecies of the purple P. calderiana, where the two species meet, hybrids of all colors are created, as shown in the last images below. P. calderiana and P. strumosa have overlapping but distinct altitudinal ranges, with P. strumosa found at higher altitudes than P. calderiana. A hybrid with P. griffithii(?) is also shown. Primula strumosa ssp tenuipes has a different leaf shape to the species and is found only in South Tibet. The type locations of this subspecies are Gyirong Xian, Tuodang and Dingjie Xian, Riwu district in Tibet. Images shown of this subspecies are from east of Mt Everest (Kangshung trek). The variety P. strumosa var perlata is considered a synonym of the yellow form of P. tsariensis.
