Seeds and Seed Pods – 5

These two seed pods are not of our own plants. But I hope that the seeds collected will produce our own plants soon.

Both primroses presented here grow in masses in the Eastern Alps and I collected now some seeds for my own purpose which will be sown this Autumn. As I've learned from my own observations the alpine Primula seeds sown too early Autumn will germinate rapidly and the seedlings won't survive the Winter here, without constant snow cover. Thus I usually sow them in late November and they germinate in Spring. From the seeds got from seed exchanges in Spring and sowed, has became anything never yet.

Primula auricula

The half ripened seed pod with its habitat (pict. of my husband, Ferenc Zoltan):

I collected the whole stem and it ripened here in water on the sunny windowsill:

You can see that the pod is longer than the calyces.

Here is a flowering plant on a picture of my darling made in May in the Eisenerzer Alps. In the background the Eisenerzer Reichenstein:

Primula clusiana

The seed pod, also half-ripened:

and ripened:

In contrast to the former species, here the pod is shorter than the calyces. This is an important character for identifying some primroses.

The plant blooms in April-May on the mountains, a little sooner than P. auricula.

You can see more pictures of it HERE.