Cowslip
Primula veris
Primulaceae
Growth habit
Herbaceous
Perennation
Perennial
Native distribution
Europe
Biocultural value
Referred to as "cuckoo-buds of yellow hue" in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, scene 2.
Location
Source of plant
Richard M. Lewis, Cornell Botanic Gardens
Description
Plants to 12" tall; leaves ovate to ovate-oblong, to 8" long, including the abruptly narrowed and wingedpetiole, pubescent beneath, irregularly toothed. Flowers bright yellow, 1/2" across, concave or almostflat, fragrant, borne in many-flowered often 1-sided umbels; calyx markedly 5-angled, somewhat inflated.
USDA Hardiness Zone
5