Primula alpicola, sometimes called the moonlight primrose, is a species of Primula

Primula

Primula is a genus of 400–500 species of low-growing herbs in the family Primulaceae. They include primrose, auricula, cowslip and oxlip. Many species are grown for their ornamental flowers...

native to southeastern Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, where it grows in vast numbers along the Tsangpo

Yarlung Zangbo River

Yarlung River is a watercourse that originates upstream from the South Tibet Valley and Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon, in Tibet. It then passes through the state of Arunachal Pradesh, India, where it is known as the Dihang....

 valley alongside Primula florindae

Primula florindae

Primula florindae, also known as the giant cowslip, is a native of southeastern Tibet, where it grows in huge numbers close to rivers like the Tsangpo....

. Their habitats hardly ever overlap; P. florindae prefers wetter soils close to rivers, giving way to P. alpicola on drier sites.

It was first collected in 1926 by Frank Kingdon-Ward

Frank Kingdon-Ward

Francis Kingdon-Ward, born Francis Kingdon Ward was an English botanist, explorer, plant collector and author. He published most of his books as Frank Kingdon-Ward and this hyphenated form of his name stuck, becoming the surname of his wives and two daughters...

, and was described as a variety of Primula microdonta by William Wright Smith

William Wright Smith

Sir William Wright Smith FRS FRSE DèsSc FLS VMH was a Scottish botanist and horticulturalist....

, but later raised to a distinct species by Otto Stapf

Otto Stapf

Otto Stapf FRS was an Austrian born botanist and taxonomist.Stapf trained in Vienna, moving to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1890. He was keeper of the Herbarium from 1909 to 1920...

.

It grows to 15-50 cm (rarely to 1 m) tall with many bell-shaped flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s. The flowers can be in several colours, white, cream, yellow and shades of purple. These are sometimes referred to as varieties, such as var. violacea; however there is some considerable inconsistency in the naming. Kingdon-Ward gave it the temporary name "Joseph's Sikkimensis" after Joseph's

Joseph (Hebrew Bible)

Joseph is an important character in the Hebrew bible, where he connects the story of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in Canaan to the subsequent story of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt....

 coat of many colours.

This plant is hardy in most of the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and is available from specialist and larger garden centre

Garden centre

A garden centre is a retail firm that sells plants and products related to gardens as its primary business. It is open to the public, with facilities to care for and display plants.- UK :...

s.