Mother of Gardens
PRIMULA WILSONII
This tall primrose with whorls of bell-shaped flowers was the first
species named for Wilson. (It is recognized universally by its
scientific name and has no common name.) Wilson collected it from
the high alpine meadows of the Hengduan Mountains in 1900, during
the first of four expeditions to this rugged region of southwestern
China. Of the roughly 500 known species in the genus
Primula, which includes many commonly encountered species in
Western gardens, nearly 300 are native to China.