European regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)
EU 27 regional assessment: Least Concern (LC)

This species demonstrates declines in most of its range being marked as threatened in several national red list. It suffers from grazing and lack of management in its grassland habitats. However, the species is still widespread and unlikely to severely decline in the near future towards extinction. More information on the current population size, trend and the overall rate of decline is needed to review whether it would qualify for threatened under Criterion A.

Primula farinosa is native to temperate Asia and throughout Europe (USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program 2012).

Bird’s-eye Primrose is a Nationally Scarce species in the United Kingdom, largely restricted to the northern Pennines. Whilst some of the remaining populations are relatively stable, decline has been reported at other sites (Jepson 2007). In Sweden, this species was common at the beginning of this century but has since declined due to changes in management practices and it now occurs sparsely in fens, meadows, shores and moist grassland (Lindborg and Ehrlén 2002). Population information for other countries is not available.

A short lived perennial herb found in wet calcareous flushes, hummocks in spring and seeping banks with open turf, commonly on open marl but also occurring in damp habitats, grazed pastureland, peaty places and drier parts of mires (Blamey and Grey-Wilson 2003, Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora 2012, Castroviejo et al. 1997). It is associated with Urocystis primulicola Magnus fungus which establishes within living plants of Primula spp., specifically within the native P. farinosa (Joint Nature Conservation Committee 2010). It flowers during May and June and is pollinated by insects (Lindborg and Ehrlén 2002).

Bird’s-eye Primrose is susceptible to drainage of its wet habitat and to the build up of nutrients, particularly nitrates, in the lime-rich soils where it grows (Jepson 2007).

P. farinosa is still frequent in suitable habitats, but locally losses have been caused by drainage and agricultural improvement (Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora 2012).

This species occurs in habitats such as hay meadows, semi-natural grasslands and shore meadows, associated with management practices which have become rare over the century. Artificial fertilisation and reduced grazing have contributed to its decline as they increase biomass and the average vegetation height which negatively affects this species as it increases competition for light (Lindborg and Ehrlén 2002, Jepson 2007).

This species is used in homoeopathy but further details are unknown.

Primula farinosa is included in the following national red lists:

• Regionally Extinct in the Czech Republic (Holub and Procházka 2000),
• Critically Endangered in Hungary (Király 2007),
• Endangered in Finland (Rassi et al. 2010),
• Vulnerable in Germany (category 3+, Ludwig and Schnittler 1996), Lithuania (category 2, Rašomavičius 2007) and the United Kingdom (Cheffings and Farrell 2005),
• Near Threatened in Denmark (NERI 2007) and Estonia (eBiodiversity Estonia 2012)
• Least Concern in Switzerland (Moser et al. 2002).

Local conservation plans are in place and it is included in protected areas in the United Kingdom (Jepson 2007). Protection of Primula farinosa populations will greatly benefit the survival of the associated and threatened fungus Urocystis primulicola (Joint Nature Conservation Committee 2010).

Monitoring of the populations and the rates of decline is recommended.