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Primula capitata; photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-07-27

Primula capitata Hook.

Buttonhead primrose

Primulaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +2

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Primula capitata, photograph (c) V_Nebenfuehr, some rights reserved (CC BY)Primula capitata, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Primula capitata, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Primula capitata, photograph (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY)Primula capitata, photograph (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY)Primula capitata, photograph (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) 18 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-10.7°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
14°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,205mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–39DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Primula capitata, commonly known as the round-headed Himalayan primrose or Asiatic primrose is a species of flowering plant in the family Primulaceae. It is a short-lived perennial, forming semi-evergreen rosettes of 15 cm (5.9 in) pale green, mealy leaves that are finely toothed, oblong-lance-shaped or inversely lance-shaped, with white-mealy undersides. Its flowers are up to 1 cm (0.39 in) long, dark purple and tubular, with shallowly lobed petals; they are borne in racemes that form flattened spheres, held on white-mealy stems about 40 cm (16 in) high.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Primula capitata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Primula

Primula is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. They include the primrose, a familiar wildflower of banks and verges. Other common species are P. auricula (auricula), P. veris (cowslip), and P. elatior (oxlip). More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Primula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,533 mm of 2,024 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 9.4 °C against a yearly mean of 3.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

2,024 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,533 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 464 mm, driest month December at 22 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,039 mm to 4,310 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,205 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,024 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -10.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -18.9 °C to -3.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 13.5 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -10.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 76% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Primula capitata through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 14 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -10.7 °C; 2,024 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 23–39RH 59–76%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 34 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C0 / -8–60 / -7–73 / -4–117 / 0–1410 / 3–1613 / 6–1813 / 8–1814 / 9–1812 / 6–179 / 2–145 / -3–112 / -5–8
Night °C-11 / -19–-3-10 / -18–-3-6 / -15–0-3 / -11–31 / -6–76 / 0–107 / 2–127 / 2–115 / 0–100 / -8–5-5 / -14–1-9 / -17–-2
Rain mm34 / 16–6758 / 27–10190 / 37–148144 / 53–263181 / 80–350293 / 158–635464 / 231–968343 / 180–909252 / 134–630115 / 62–17928 / 11–4722 / 11–42
DLI25 / 20–3329 / 24–3835 / 30–4539 / 34–4936 / 33–4631 / 27–3726 / 21–3127 / 23–3127 / 24–3228 / 24–3626 / 21–3323 / 18–30
RH %59 / 46–6661 / 49–6862 / 52–7164 / 57–7167 / 63–7373 / 67–7776 / 71–7875 / 70–7773 / 66–7565 / 57–7061 / 50–6859 / 46–65

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1176 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -12.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 34 grid cells holding the 42 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1251:5419 (27.425, 90.975). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 34 distinct grid cells holding 42 of the 42 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1251:5419 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_91.250, lapse-corrected +1176 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3595 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal · introduced: Germany · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker27.65, 87.55 · in the densest population, 42 records (49% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subalpine or subarctic” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 85 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 42 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 56 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 43 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 85 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Primula capitata, photograph 1did not loadPrimula capitata, photograph 2did not loadPrimula capitata, photograph 3did not loadPrimula capitata, photograph 4did not loadPrimula capitata, photograph 5did not loadPrimula capitata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) V_Nebenfuehr, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Gentiana elwesii Gentiana elwesii Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten Ross Rhododendron baileyi Ericaceae Rhododendron lepidotum Rhododendron lepidotum Scaly rhododendron Photo: CC0, author not statedPrunus rufa Prunus rufa Himalayan Cherry Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoCyananthus lobatus Cyananthus lobatus Campanulaceae Photo: CC BY, V_NebenfuehrMeconopsis paniculata Meconopsis paniculata Satin poppy Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Primula 204 in the reference

Primula albenensis Primulaceae Primula algida Primula algida Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Юлия ЗахаренкоPrimula allionii Primula allionii Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauPrimula alpicola Primula alpicola Moonlight primrose Photo: CC BY-SA, peganumPrimula amethystina Primula amethystina Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossPrimula amoena Primula amoena Caucasian primrose Photo: CC BY, Екатерина КравцоваPrimula angustifolia Primula angustifolia Alpine primrose Photo: CC BY, Aiva NoringsethPrimula anisodora Primula anisodora Anise primrose Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsPrimula apennina Primula apennina Primulaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPrimula aurantiaca Primula aurantiaca Primulaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, SalicynaPrimula aureata Primula aureata Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, desertnaturalistPrimula auricula Primula auricula Auricula Photo: CC BY, Jonas Sielenkämper all 205 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Primula craibeana; Primula pseudocapitata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
Hook.
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya +1
Wild records
85 in range · 56 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_91.250, lapse-corrected +1176 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1176 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 19 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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