In article ,
Stewart Robert Hinsley wrote:

My books and a Web searches leave me totally baffled as to what
horticultural polyanthus are botanically, and Wikipedia has a
picture of red cowslips that match what I have in appearance.
So have they bred themselves back to close to P. veris?

As Archie said of Mehitabel's kits, Boss, can such things be?

Did you mean SRH?

Yes. Sorry :-(

The BSBI use Primula x polyantha for polyanthus in general. Richards'
monograph on Primula (1993 edn) has Primula x tommasinii for Primula
veris x vulgaris, and Primula x pruhoniciana for Primula juliiae x
tommasinii. Primula elatior may also be involved in some clones.

That figures :-(

So, polyanthus are hybrids between primroses and cowslips, with the
possible involvement of other species in some cases. Richards attributes
red cowslips to introgression from red-flowered subspecies of primrose.

I find breeding themselves back towards P. veris plausible.

Thanks.

An alternative is the P. veris introduced itself, and then outcompeted
the originals.

No, there are just too many intermediates between the ones I can't
tell from cowslips and the ones that are still noticeably different.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.