Common Name: PRIMROSE FAMILY
Habit: Annual, perennial herb, or subshrub, glabrous to glandular-hairy. Leaf: simple, +- basal, petioled or not; stipules 0. Inflorescence: scapose umbel, subtended by involucre. Flower: bisexual, radial; parts in 4s or 5s (6s); calyx deeply lobed, often persistent; corolla lobes erect or spreading to reflexed; stamens epipetalous, opposite corolla lobes; ovary superior, 1-chambered, placenta free-central, style 1, stigma head- or dot-like. Fruit: capsule, 2--7-valved or circumscissile. Seed: small, few to many.
Genera In Family: +- 8 genera, 600 species: northern hemisphere; several ornamental (Primula). Note: Based on molecular evidence, non-rosette terrestrial members of Primulaceae as treated in TJM (1993) moved to Myrsinaceae, and Samolus to Theophrastaceae; based on the same evidence, Primulaceae has been treated alternatively to include all of Myrsinaceae and Theophrastaceae. Taxa of Dodecatheon in TJM2 treated here in Primula.
Unabridged Note: Recent molecular work has led to new understanding of relationships in Ericales. As treated here, non-rosette, terrestrial members of Primulaceae s.l. have been removed from that family and inserted in Myrsinaceae. Myrsinaceae, then, is characterized by synapomorphies of dark dots or streaks on stems, leaves, or flowers, short corolla tubes, seeds immersed in the placenta, and -- for woody members -- wood lacking rays or with only multiseriate rays. Primulaceae, Myrsinaceae, Theophrastaceae, and Maesaceae (a recent segregate of tropical trees), now constitute a closely related, monophyletic clade. A more recently proposed, alternative taxonomy treats all members of that large clade within an expanded Primulaceae.
eFlora Treatment Author: Anita F. Cholewa, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Bruce G. Baldwin, David J. Keil, Thomas J. Rosatti.