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When I moved into this house, the front garden was a sea of primroses, and I have dug them up and spread them around the place again and again, but they still come up from
seed in the front garden, and their offspring are slowly spreading into a carpet in the woods. John Richards says: "Primroses are still locally abundant in many parts of the British Isles, but in many other parts of the large range they are local and scarce. In Britain, they were dug up for sale in street markets for centuries, and this deprivation, together with habitat loss, rendered them scarce, particularly in urban areas where they often only survive on railway embankments. Since 1975, the uprooting of primroses (or any other plants) became illegal in Britain, and after some prosecutions, street trading virtually ceased. As a result, primroses became noticeably more common during the 1980s. Unlike its relatives, primrose seed is provided with a gelatinous outgrowth (elaiosome) which is attractive to ants which scavenge the seeds and carry them to their nests. Consequently, seedlings are frequently found clustered areound old ant nests." |
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| 8th April 2007 | ||
