Perennial of the Primulaceae family, native to the Franco-Italian Maritime Alps. The form presented here is not identified with certainty; it could be a wild collected form or an old cultivar whose name has been lost, which is not uncommon in old rock garden collections.
What is striking here is not so much the foliage, still young and developing, but the woody structure of the plant. The stipes are long, branched, creeping to semi-upright, bearing the compressed scars of successive leaves from past years. This architecture reveals a plant of a certain age, capable of slowly colonizing the crevices of a rock garden by anchoring itself as it would in a limestone cliff fissure.
The young leaves, a bright green with slightly farinose and toothed margins, contrast with the dark wood of the stipes. The farinose is not well developed on this spring foliage, which is usual at the beginning of vegetation.
In its natural habitat, the species' flowering extends from April to June depending on altitude. The cultivation conditions remain those of the species: rigorous drainage, slightly calcareous mineral substrate, shelter from prolonged winter humidity.