Primula involucrata Wall. ex Duby

Herbs perennial, efarinose. Leaves forming a rosette; petiole ca. as long as to 3 X as long as leaf blade; leaf blade ovate to oblong or suborbicular, 1--3.5 X 5--22 cm, subfleshy, sparsely minutely glandular, base cuneate, rounded to slightly cordate, margin entire or remotely obscure denticulate, apex obtuse to rounded. Scapes 10--30 cm; umbels 2--6-flowered; bracts oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 8--15 X 1.5--4 mm, prolonged below into blunt, 4--7 mm auricles. Pedicel 1--3.5 cm, elongating to 8 cm in fruit. Flowers heterostylous. Calyx narrowly campanulate, 5--10 mm, parted to 1/3 or slightly below, 5-ribbed; lobes lanceolate to triangular, glandular ciliolate, apex acute. Corolla white, pink, or purple; limb 1.5--2 cm wide; lobes obovate, deeply emarginate. Pin flowers: corolla tube 1--1.2 cm; stamens ca. 4 mm above base of corolla tube; style slightly exserted. Thrum flowers: corolla tube 1.2--1.4 cm; stamens toward apex of corolla tube; style slightly shorter than calyx. Capsule oblong, 1.25--1.5 X as long as calyx. 2n = 22, 44.

Grows in abundance in moist meadows flushed with melt water from snow and glaciers, 4,000-5,000 metres.

The fresh leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.

Can be grown by seedlings.