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

Robison Herb Garden

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