Discovering Yunnan's eight best-known beautiful flowers: fairy primrose

Photo shows the Primula sikkimensis, one species of fairy primrose. (Photo courtesy of Kunming Institute of Botany under the Chinese Academy of Sciences)

With generous sunshine and abundant rainfall, southwest China’s Yunnan province is endowed with rich varieties of precious flowers and plants, being home to more than 2,100 decorative plants, among which at least 1,500 are flowering plants. Camellia, magnolia, lily, azalea, fairy primrose, orchid, herba meconopsis, and radix gentianae are eight of the best-known flowers in Yunnan.

On Oct. 11 this year, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is scheduled to take place in Kunming, capital city of Yunnan. To better display the beauty of the flowers, People’s Daily Online would like to introduce you to the eight best-known flowers of Yunnan.

There are over 500 fairy primrose species in the world and more than 160 of them are endemic to Yunnan, including the Primula amethystine, Primula dryadifolia sp, dryadifolia, and Primula bella.

The flower usually blooms from late winter to mid-spring, and is considered to be a major ornamental flower during this period. The flower has a well-deserved reputation as being the messenger of spring. It comes in various kinds of shades, including red, white, yellow, purple and peach, and boasts a sweet scent.