Home › P › Primulaceae (Natural order of herbs)

Primulaceae (Natural order of herbs)

A natural order of herbs, of variable habit, usually with a perennial rhizome, very rarely sub-shrubby at base; they mostly inhabit Northern temperate (especially alpine) regions, being rare in the Southern hemisphere, and very scarce in the tropics. Flowers hermaphrodite, usually regular, small or rather large, sometimes axillary and solitary, often racemose, or solitary or umbellate at the apex of an elongated scape, the inflorescence centripetal; calyx free, or very rarely adnate to the ovary, four to nine-fid or parted, usually persistent; corolla hypogynous, generally gamopetalous, rotate, hypocrateriform, or infundibuliform-campanulate, with a short or elongated tube; limb four to nineparted or four to six-lobed, the lobes or segments entire, emarginate, or fimbriate-lacerate, imbricated or twisted in aestivation, rarely sub-bilabiate or wanting; stamens as many as the corolla lobes. Capsule onecelled. Leaves exstipulate, sometimes all radical, sometimes cauline, alternate, opposite, or whorled, simple or rarely lobed (in Hottonia, pectinate and multifid). The species are more remarkable for their beauty than for the little economic value they possess. Most of the flowers are sweet-scented. the order comprises twentyone genera, and abut 250 species. Well-known illustrative genera are: Androsace, Cyclamen, Lysimachia, and Primula.