Individual flowers, almost ½ inch across, are formed of 5 brilliant, crimson, spreading corolla lobes which join at their base into a narrow tube; dark shadings and yellow markings at the throat of the tube give the effect of a round eye. A dozen or more flowers, each on a nodding pedicel, are clustered at the top of a stout dark stem which rises from a whorl of deep-green, broad, lance-shaped leaves. Plant is about 10 to 20 inches tall. Grows in sub-alpine zone or slightly higher. Blooms June-early July.

This spectacular primrose grows at the edge of cold streams, or often on rocky-mossy hillocks right in mid-stream. One never forgets the picture of their beauty—the flower clusters so rich in color, the alpine background, the mat of moss and deep green leaves. Too bad for such a plant to spoil any part of it with a most disagreeable fragrance, yet that does remove any temptation to take them home. On the higher tundras, a charming find is the tiny fairy primrose, Primula angustifolia, similar in color, though not so vivid. A single short-stemmed flower is usually all that this plant carries.