Bird's-eye Primrose (Primula farinosa)
Key Details
| Taxonomic Groups: | Vascular plant > flowering plant > Herbaceous plant |
| Red List Status: | Vulnerable (Not Relevant) [VU(nr)] |
| D5 Status: | Included in the baseline Red List Index for England (Wilkins, Wilson & Brown, 2022) |
| Section 41 Status: | (not listed) |
| Taxa Included Synonym: | (none) |
| UKSI Recommended Name: | Primula farinosa |
| UKSI Recommended Authority: | L. |
| UKSI Recommended Qualifier: | (none specified) |
| Red List Citation: | in Stroh et al., 2014 |
| Notes on taxonomy/listing: | (none) |
Criteria
| Question 1: | Does species need conservation or recovery in England? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | NT in England; the entire British population is confined to England following its extinction in Scotland where there around 500 sites (based on the number of 100m grid cell records in the BSBI's database). Plant Atlas 2020 revealed moderate long term and short term trends, although it remains locally abundant in the Yorkshire Dales, Teesdale and parts of Cumbria . However, even in these areas it has declined both within and on the edge of this range as a result of loss of wetland to agriculture, drainage, etc. |
| Question 2: | Does recovery/ conservation depend on species-specific actions? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | A specialist plant of flushed limestone grassland and calcareous flushes and mires |
| Question 3: | At a landscape scale, would the species benefit from untargeted habitat management to increase habitat mosaics, structural diversity, or particular successional stages? |
| Response: | Yes |
| Justification: | Better management of road verges and pasture in its core range could help restore and connect populations. Restoration of populations from inappropriate wood/scrub as part of CS |
Species Assessment
| Current step on the Species Recovery Curve (SRC): | 4. Autecology and pressures understood |
| Recovery potential/expectation: | Medium-high |
| National Monitoring Resource: | Opportunistic - insufficient |
| Species Comments: | This species has been well surveyed opportunistically at the 1km/2km scale in many areas (e.g. Yorkshire Dales, Teesdale) areas but its distribution at higher resolution is still largely unknown |
Key Actions
Key Action 1
Proposed Action: Review what is known about the plant to identify why it has declined
Action targets: 4. Autecology and pressures understood
Action type: Scientific research
Duration: 1 year
Scale of Implementation: Not applicable
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 2
Proposed Action: Undertake a targeted survey of a sample of historic sites to gain a better picture of its distribution, population sizes, habitats and threats
Action targets: 3. National Monitoring Plan agreed and implemented
Action type: Status survey/review
Duration: 2 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Key Action 3
Proposed Action: Encourage appropriate management on species-rich road verges by pushing for N reduction and routine positive management of grassland habitats on road verges (not cut & rot)
Action targets: 7. Best approach adopted at appropriate scales
Action type: Habitat management
Duration: >10 years
Scale of Implementation: ≤ 50 sites
High priority sites:
Comments:
Acknowledgment:
Data used on this website are adapted from Threatened species recovery actions 2025 baseline (JP065): Technical report and spreadsheet user guide (Natural England, 2025). Available here.