Flora of North America species comparison

Variety pulchellum is the most widespread and common variant of the species. It ranges from south-eastern Alaska and western Canada, to southeastern Manitoba, to Lassen County, California, northern and eastern Arizona, New Mexico, and northern Mexico. Scattered populations are found in western North Dakota (Burke County) and in western Nebraska (Morrill County). A collection at Fort Lewis, Thurston County, Washington (D. Thysell 705, WTU), may be an introduction.

Relatively small, usually high-elevation plants in southeastern British Columbia, Idaho, western Montana, northeastern Nevada, and western Wyoming have been segregated as var. watsonii. The origin of a similar specimen, supposedly from Mount Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island (collector unknown, UBC) remains to be confirmed. In Montana and northwestern Wyoming, such plants can be easily confused with the sparsely glandular Dodecatheon conjugens, which also has transverse rugose (not smooth or longitudinally wrinkled) connectives.

Plants with leaves to 25 cm wide may be seen along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and in north-central New Mexico; this phase was named Dodecatheon radicatum. Some populations from Alberta (the type location of D. pulchellum) have similar leaves. Plants with yellow pollen sacs occur in some populations on the Great Plains in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, gradually becoming more common eastward. A collection from the Sierra Madre, Durango, Mexico (E. W. Nelson 4780, K, US) is allied to var. pulchellum. Some populations east of the Alaska Range and in adjacent northern Yukon, here assigned to var. pulchellum, have minutely glandular calyces, pedicels, nodes, and uppermost portion of scapes. The taxonomic significance of these plants has not been determined; they may indicate some past introgression with D. frigidum.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Genera 20, species ca. 600 (5 genera, 52 species in the flora).

The largest genera in Primulaceae are Primula (ca. 500 species) and Androsace (ca. 100 species). No genera are endemic to the flora area; Dodecatheon and Douglasia have relatively few representatives elsewhere (northeastern Asia).

The family contains ornamental taxa, especially in Dodecatheon and Primula. Primula can cause dermatitis. Some taxa are pollinated by insects; selfing also occurs. Seeds are dispersed by gravity, water, wind, or ants (Primula; B. Ståhl and A. A. Anderberg 2004).

As typically described (e.g., A. Cronquist 1981; V. H. Heywood 1978), Primulaceae were clearly polyphyletic, closely related to Myrsinaceae and Theophrastaceae. M. Källersjö et al. (2000) and B. Ståhl and A. A. Anderberg (2004) removed the nonrosette terrestrial members from Primulaceae in the broad sense and placed them in the Myrsinaceae, which are further distinguished by leaves and calyx often dotted with yellow or dark streaks, flowers with relatively shorter corolla tubes, seeds immersed in placentae, and wood devoid of rays or with multiseriate rays only. Maesa, consisting entirely of trees found in the Eastern Hemisphere tropics, also has semi-inferior ovaries, pedicels with two bracts, and wood with both uniseriate and multiseriate rays; it, too, was removed from Primulaceae/Myrsinaceae and placed in its own family (Källersjö et al.). The families Primulaceae in the narrow sense, Myrsinaceae, Theophrastaceae (including Samolaceae), and Maesaceae then form a monophyletic clade within Ericales (P. F. Stevens, http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/research/APweb/), sharing some features, most notably flowers with sympetalous corollas, stamens in a single series and opposite the petals, free-central placentation, bitegmic, tenuinucellate ovules, and plants generally with tannins and saponins.

Additional evidence (L. Martins et al. 2003) indicates that Androsace and Primula may not be monophyletic; more work is needed to resolve these issues. The work of M. Källersjö et al. (2000) showed that Douglasia should remain separate from Androsace, and Dodecatheon should remain separate from Primula, although Dodecatheon clearly is derived from Primula subg. Auriculastrum. Alternative views suggesting more inclusive concepts of Primula and Androsace have been offered by I. Trift et al. (2002), A. R. Mast et al. (2004), and G. M. Schneeweiss et al. (2004). The phylogenetic position of Cyclamen, a scapose taxon currently included in Myrsinaceae, has not been resolved. Our understanding of Primulaceae is still in flux, and future taxonomic realignments at the familial and generic levels are to be expected.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)