Authors: All.  

Botanical Description

The most familiar of several closely related reddish-flowered species in s Auricula. Leaves ovate to suborbicular, l-9cm long, narrowing abruptly into a winged petiole, toothed distally, fleshy and viscid with colourless or yellow short (0.2 mm) glandular hairs. Flowers pale pink to deepish red-mauve or white with a white eye, 1.5-2.5cm across in umbels of up to fifteen on short stems 1-7cm long, not or scarcely exceeding the leaves (flowers exceeding leaves and with longer coloured glands in related species). April (May-June in the wild).  Very variable and many forms have been described. Pyrenees and Alps, usually calcifuge. Wet cliffs and grassy slopes, 220-3600m. Calcareous races, e.g. P. 'grignensis' are probably not morphologically distinct. The parent of a multitude of garden hybrids as 'Auriculas' (P. x pubescens), and hybridising with a number of species in the wild. Not difficult in cultivation in a cool trough or partially shaded raised bed. For pot culture, best in a plastic pot and kept cool outside in summer.

Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, AGS/SRGC Northumberland Show, 1 April 2017

Joint Rock: Joint Rock Awards, Northumberland, 28 March, 2009

a, P. hirsuta; b, P. integrifolia; c, P. minima; d, P. palinuri;