Lysimachia fraseri is a rare species of flowering plant in the primrose family known by the common name Fraser’s yellow loosestrife. It is native to the southeastern United States, where it is listed as an endangered species in several states. This is a rhizomatous perennial herb reaching about a meter in maximum height, or taller in moist conditions. It has a slender, erect stem coated in black-tipped glandular hairs, especially near each whorl of leaves. The whorls are composed of 3 to 6 leaves each on the upper stem, and the leaves toward the base are paired oppositely. The leaves are lance-shaped to nearly oval in shape and up to 15 centimeters long. They are dotted with black glands and there is a narrow but usually distinct dark or reddish strip along the margin of each leaf. The inflorescence is up to 25 centimeters long with many flowers, each just over a centimeter wide. The lance-shaped sepals are glandular and outlined in red like the leaves.

The flat face of the flower is made up of five yellow oval petals. The fruit is a capsule containing many brown seeds. This species is similar in appearance to other Lysimachia species; it can often be distinguished from them by its solid yellow petals and the granular appearance of the glandular hairs on its upper stem and foliage. This species grows in areas near water, such as gravelly river banks and ditches, and thrives in disturbed areas, undergoing cycles of increase and decrease as it takes over cleared land and is shaded out by taller plants. When the growing plant is exposed to sun through a break in the canopy it grows robustly. Plants growing in shaded situations are often sterile. As the species depends on the sunlight in open areas for its fertility, human suppression of wildfire leading to the overgrowth of canopy is a threat to its success. This species is named for the Scottish botanist John Fraser.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysimachia_fraseri

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Cyclamen cyprium, known as the Cyprus cyclamen, is one of the 23 known species of cyclamen. It is endemic to the island of Cyprus and has been selected to represent the national flower of the country.

The Cyprus cyclamen is a perennial, tuberous herb that grows from 7 to a maximum of about 15 cm in height. It has simple, heart-shaped, fleshy leaves, which have long petioles and coarsely dentate margins. The undersurface of the leaves are characteristically rich purple or crimson-purple. The flowers are solitary, nodding, on long pedicles; the petal is 5-lobed, white or pale pink, with an M-shaped magenta blotch towards the base of each lobe. Flowers appear in autumn, usually a little earlier than the leaves. Soon after anthesis, the pedicles start coiling from apex downwards and a globose capsule appears on each pedicle.

The plant grows on shaded calcareous or igneous rocks, steep hillsides and streambanks, usually under trees and shrubs at an altitude of 50 to 1200 m. It flowers from September to January, but on occasion flowering is prolonged to March. Cyprus cyclamen is the only endemic of the three species of the genus Cyclamen found in Cyprus, the others being Cyclamen persicum, and Cycamen graecum. It grows on most of the island with the exception of the Mesaoria plain.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclamen_cyprium

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Cyclamen are commonly grown for their flowers, both outdoors and indoors in pots. Several species are hardy and can be grown outdoors in mild climates such as northwest Europe and the Pacific Northwest of North America.

The cyclamen commonly sold by florists is C. persicum, which is frost-tender. Selected cyclamen cultivars can have white, bright pink, red or purple flowers. While flowering, florists’ cyclamens should be kept below 20 °C (68 °F), with the night time temperatures preferably between 6.5 °C to 15 °C (44 °F to 59 °F). Temperatures above 20 °C (68 °F) may induce the plant to go dormant.

In many areas within the native range, cyclamen populations have been severely depleted by collection from the wild, often illegally, for the horticultural trade; some species are now endangered as a result. However, in a few areas, plant conservation charities have educated local people to control the harvest carefully at a sustainable level, including sowing seed for future crops, both sustaining the wild populations and producing a reliable long-term income. Many cyclamen are also propagated in nurseries without harm to the wild plants.

The Cyclamen species are known for its delicate taste and people from all over the world have been known to eat it. People worldwide have also been known to pick off the petals and use them in tea.

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Cyclamen is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants, traditionally classified in the family Primulaceae, but in recent years reclassified in the family Myrsinaceae (Kallersjo et al. 2000). The genus is most widely known by its scientific name Cyclamen being taken into common usage; other names occasionally used include sowbread and sometimes, confusingly, Persian violet (it is not related to the violets), or primrose (neither is it a primrose).

Cyclamen are native to the Mediterranean region from Spain east to Iran, and also in Northeast Africa in areas such as Somalia. They are perennial herbaceous aestivating plants, with a surface or underground tuber (derived from the hypocotyl) 4-12 cm diameter, which produces leaves in late winter, and flowers in the autumn; the leaves die down during the hottest part of the Mediterranean summer drought to conserve water. Each leaf or flower grows on its own stem, which shoots up from the hypocotyl. The variegation is thought by some botanists to be a form of natural disruptive camouflage to reduce grazing damage by animals.

The hypocotyl grows leaves and flowers on stems, either one flower or one leaf per stem. The stem for leaves and flowers appears identical except in height. The leaves grow on stems of around 6 cm – 9 cm height.

The leaves grow on stems up to 8 cm tall and form a tightly bunched circular disk of leaves. Leaves are rounded to triangular, 2-10 cm long and 2-7 cm broad, and usually variegated with a pale silvery horseshoe-shaped mark round the middle of the leaf.The top of the leaf is split with the split extending to the connection with the stem. A common cultivar available in western shops has a leaves with a (slightly stretched) heart shape.

The stems for flowers rise from the middle of the disk of leaves. The stem for flowers grows up to 12 cm tall, and the end of the flowers stem curves 150 – 180 degrees downward. The flower bud terminates the stem. The various cultivars produce flowers with either four or five united petals growing from the edge of the flower bud. The petals are usually reflexed back 90° to 180° to be erect above the flower bud, and vary from white through pink to red-purple, most commonly pale pink.

The fruit is a five-chambered capsule 1-2 cm diameter, containing numerous sticky seeds about 2 mm diameter. Natural seed dispersal is by ants, which eat the sticky covering and then discard the seeds. Cyclamens are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including The Gothic.

Cyclamen typically grow in dry forest or scrub, where they are at least partly shaded from intense sunlight. The species vary greatly in winter frost tolerance, with the hardiest species (C. hederifolium) tolerating temperatures down to -15°C (5 °F), or -30°C (-22 °F) if covered by snow. Others, such as C. somalense from northeastern Somalia, do not tolerate any frost at all. Certain climate change models suggest many species could become extinct in their current range within the next 50 years.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclamen

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Anagallis is a genus of about 20–25 species of flowering plants in the myrsine family Myrsinaceae, commonly called pimpernel and perhaps best known for the Scarlet pimpernel referred to in literature. The botanical name is from the Greek, ana, “again”, and agallein, “to delight in”, and refers to the opening and closing of the flowers in response to environmental conditions.

These are annual or perennial plants, growing in tufts on weedy and uncultivated areas. The stems are prostrate or decumbent. The leaves are opposite, rarely whorled, and sometimes with a few alternate leaves at the end of the stem. They are usually ovate in shape with a cordate base. Some of the species produce flowers of various colors. The flowers are radially symmetrical and have 5 sepals. The corolla consists of a short tube and 5 lobes. The tube may be so short that the lobes appear to be separate petals. They are usually solitary in the leaf axils, but sometimes are on short spikes at the end of the stem. Pimpernel flowers remain open only under direct sun-light. The stamens are opposite the corolla lobes. The staminal filaments have conspicuous hairs. The ovary is superior, globose, and circumscissile near the middle.

They were formerly classified as members of the primrose family (Primulaceae), but a genetic and morphological study by Källersjö et al.  Showed that they belong to the closely related family Myrsinaceae. In the APG III system, published in 2009, Primulaceae is expanded to include Myrsinaceae, thus Anagallis is in Primulaceae sensu lato.

Another study by Ulrika Manns and Arne A. Anderberg (2005), based on molecular phylogeny, states that Anagallis in its present circumscription is paraphyletic and should also include in its clade the small genera Asterolinon and Pelletiera, as well as two Lysimachia species (Lysimachia nemorum and Lysimachia serpyllifolia).

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagallis

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The genus Soldanella, commonly known in English as snowbell, includes about 15 species in the flowering plant family Primulaceae, native to European mountains, from the Pyrenees, the Apennines, the Alps, the Carpathians and the Balkans. They grow in woods, damp pastures and rocky landscapes from 500-3,000 m above sea level, usually in hollows which hold snow long into the summer.

They typically have a basal rosette of simple, orbicular leaves 1–5 cm wide, with the flower stalks arising from the centre of the rosette, each stalk bearing 1-6 white to violet flowers.

The species are similar to each other and it is nearly impossible to identify images. Subtle differences are observable using a magnifying glass.

The species can be lumped in groups of similar appearance.

Large-sized plants

1. S. villosa occurring in Basque Lands at low elevations has large papery leaves and about 1 mm glandular hairs on petioles.

Medium-sized plants

2. S. alpina including S. occidentalis and S. pyrolaefolia occurring in the Alps and Southern European mountains has sitting glands on petioles, scapes and pedicels.

3. S. carpatica occurring in the Western Carpathians in Slovakia and Poland has sitting glands on petioles but short glandular hairs on pedicels.

4. S. marmarossiensis including S. rugosa occurring in the North-Eastern Carpatians in the Ukraine and Romania has short glandular hairs on petioles and pedicels and narrowly crateriform corolla.

5. S. angusta, S. calabrella, S. chrysosticta including S. cyanaster, S. hungarica, S. major, S. montana, S. oreodoxa, S. pindicola including S. dimoniei and S. macedonica, S. pseudomontana, S. rhodopaea, S. tatricola all having broadly crateriform corolla mutually differ in the length and shape of cells forming short glandular hairs on petioles and pedicells.

Small-sized plants

6. S. alpicola occurring in the Alps, S. pusilla occurring in the Southern Carpathians and S. pirinica occurring in Bulgaria are characterized by the top position of the bract and sitting glands. Often encountered hybrid S. alpina × S. alpicola has laterally positioned bract.

7. S. austriaca and S. minima occurring in the Alps and Apennines are characterized by short glandular hairs and laterally positioned bract.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldanella

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Primula vulgaris (syn. P. acaulis (L.) Hill) is a species of Primula native to western and southern Europe (from the Faroe Islands and Norway south to Portugal, and east to Germany, Ukraine, the Crimea, and the Balkans), northwest Africa (Algeria), and southwest Asia (Turkey east to Iran). The common name is primrose, or occasionally common primrose or English primrose to distinguish it from other Primula species also called primroses.

It is a herbaceous perennial plant, low growing, to 10–30 cm tall, with a basal rosette of leaves. The leaves are 5–25 cm long and 2–6 cm broad with an irregularly crenate to dentate margin, and a usually short leaf stem. The flowers are 2–4 cm in diameter, borne singly on a slender stem, pale yellow, white, red, or purple (see further below), actinomorphic with a superior ovary which later forms a capsule which opens by valves to release the small black seeds. The flowers are hermaphrodite but heterostylous; individual plants bear either pin flowers (longuistylous flower: with the capita of the style prominent) or thrum flowers (brevistylous flower: with the stamens prominent). Fertilisation can only take place between pin and thrum flowers. Pin-to-pin and thrum-to-thrum pollination is ineffective.

It flowers in early spring, one of the earliest spring flowers in much of Europe. (“Primrose” is ultimately from Old French primerose or medieval Latin prima rosa, meaning first “rose”.) In appropriate conditions, it can cover the ground in open woods and shaded hedgerows.

In more populated areas it has sometimes suffered from over-collection and theft so that few natural displays of primroses in abundance can now be found. To prevent excessive damage to the species, picking of primroses or the removal of primrose plants from the wild is illegal in many countries, e.g. the UK (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, Section 13, part 1b).

The wild primrose was also once a common sight in Victorian cottage gardens. Many garden centres now stock the wild variety for those gardeners who are keen on wildflowers.

There are three subspecies:^[1][5]

• Primula vulgaris subspecies vulgaris. Western and southern Europe. As described above; flowers pale yellow.
• Primula vulgaris subsp. balearica (Willk.) W.W.Sm. & Forrest. Balearic Islands (endemic). Flowers white. Leaf stem longer than leaf blade.
• Primula vulgaris subsp. sibthorpii (Hoffmanns.) W.W.Sm. & Forrest. Balkans, southwest Asia. Flowers pink to red or purple.

It is distinguished from other species of Primula by its pale yellow (in the nominate subspecies) flowers produced singly on long flower stalks which are covered in rather shaggy hairs. The flowers open flat rather than concave as in the case of Primula veris, the Cowslip.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primula_vulgaris

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Primula veris contains glycosides, primeverin and primulaverin and saponine primula acid A. and is used by herbalists as a diuretic, an expectorant, and an antispasmodic, as well as for the treatment of headaches, whooping cough, tremors, and other conditions. It can, however, have irritant effects in those who are allergic to it.

Cowslip flowers were traditionally used for making cowslip wine, cowslip mead and salads; the 19th century English botanist and illustrator, Anne Pratt, wrote of it:

In the midland and southern counties of England, a sweet and pleasant wine resembling the muscadel is made from the cowslip flower, and it is one of the most wholesome and pleasant of home-made wines, and slightly narcotic in its effects. In times when English wines were more used, every housewife in Warwickshire could produce her clear cowslip wine…the cowslip is still sold in many markets for this purpose, and little cottage girls still ramble the meadows during April and May in search of it…country people use it as a salad or boil it for the table.

Other Old English names for the plant were “paigle” and “drelip”. Cowslips were used in England as a garland on maypoles.

The cowslip is the county flower of four counties of England; Essex, Northamptonshire, Surrey, and Worcestershire.

Norwegian poet John Paulsen wrote a poem entitled “Med en primula veris” (“With a primula veris”), later popularized by famous composer Edvard Grieg through a song in his opus 26.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primula_veris

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